


Lovely Motive Creatures

by TheBookOfPhini



Series: Danganronpa: Killing Spring Festival [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Depression, Obsessive Behavior, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Relatives Danganronpa Cast, Spoilers, killing game, lost teens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 06:29:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14847546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBookOfPhini/pseuds/TheBookOfPhini
Summary: Seventeen years after the last Killing Game, the world is still trying to rebuild itself after the happenings of the Tragedy. The last Remnants of Despair seemed to have disappeared allowing the world to recover. It’s not until the world finally had found a stable state when a bunch of pink envelopes delivered to sixteen oblivious students start the horror all over again.How many of them will survive, how many will fall victim to despair? Is there even a chance to survive this hell? And why were they the ones chosen? Was it simply bad luck or is there a deeper meaning connecting all sixteen participants by fate?The truth behind the Killing Game may reveal more than any of them could have ever thought of.





	1. Festival Lottery

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! Here is the longer story I started before turning my attention to the oneshot I posted before. I’m still trying to improve my writing, so feel free to ask if anything is bothering you or point out if there are major mistakes in the text!  
> I’m also my own beta, besides Word xD, so this will go as well as you can imagine.
> 
> Though, this story will be something different. I know it contains mostly of Original Characters, but I liked the idea and I wanted to write it down. The former casts of Danganronpa, at least the ones that are part of the story, are mentioned or will show up at the end of the story. I’ll apologize beforehand for my poor attempts on creating a Killing Game but it’s more a build up for the aftermath to come.
> 
> Another remark is that the story will take place somewhere and nowhere, because I probably mix up details concerning culture or landscapes to create a fitting world for them. After all the story happens after the Tragedy and most of the world is destroyed.
> 
> ...But enough rambling from me! I thank you for reading and hope you enjoy the story!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Kouki-kun.”
> 
> “Huh?” What did I do this time?
> 
> “It’s you that is granted the possibility to go to the spring festival. There it is one ticket just for you.”
> 
> Wait what!?
> 
> “That’s a joke isn’t it?” he asked not entirely proceeding what happened.

 

The warmth of the spring sun was flattering the skin of a small boy’s face whilst the soft touch of the grass, surrounding his body, made him feel sleepy. Playing with small strands of his hair all he did was listening to the sounds of his environment. There were some singing birds above and a quiet rustle of leaves to listen to. He could also make out small voices in the distance, only disturbed by passing cars from the road in front of the garden he was in.

_A few more minutes..._

Constantly restraining himself from doing anything at all, which would direct attention towards him, he stayed surprisingly still. Surprisingly _for_ _him_. Maybe if he was lucky they wouldn’t immediately assume that it was his doing. So he would have enough time to...

“Sato Kouki-kun! Where are you hiding? What did you do with Aimi-chan’s birthday meal?”

 _Oh. So much for not immediately condemn me as the culprit_. The discovery had happened faster than he expected. Seems they were really mad at him this time.

And what’s with the use of his stupid surname? Normally no one would address him like that because in reality it wasn’t his. After his parents had chosen to abandon him directly after birth and leaving him on the doorsteps of an orphanage without any hint or explanation, the owner of the orphanage had chosen to give him this name. _Sato_ as surname, because it was part of the orphanage’s name he was given to. How else should they've handled an unknown and most of all unwanted child? So here he was, Sato Kouki, not named by his parents but by some strangers that picked him up from the streets.

He opened one of his eyes to take a short look at his surroundings. The grass was fortunately tall enough to hide him from being spotted from afar, even if he lifted his head a bit, but should someone come closer to his location he would be found out. A few bushes protected him from the view from the front doors of the orphanage, the place the voice, which had called for him, probably came from.

“Kouki-kun!” the voice shouted again. “I know you're somewhere around!”

He sighed. What had he expected? Of course they would be mad when someone was messing with their lovely Aimi-chan. _Sato_ Aimi was only one year younger than him -namely 15- and worst of all loved by the whole orphanage. Kouki couldn’t say that about himself. What annoyed him most was her attitude of absolute perfection and kindness, but only towards persons she could benefit from. Naturally over time this led to an intern warship between the two of them. This also meant he couldn’t quite ignore such a great chance like her birthday and do nothing at all to spice it a bit up and get his revenge.

“Kouki-kun,” the voice sounded nearer now. He couldn’t move otherwise they would spot him in an instant. “Why did you do this? Aimi-chan is really upset about her birthday being ruined like this.”

_Hope she is. She deserved it after all._

The last time she turned the whole staff of the orphanage against him in making them believe he had stolen one of the console games, which were stored in a box along with other gifts for the children. Whenever they did something worth praising, like they were really good at school or did help with difficult things, they were allowed to chose one thing out of the box and keep it as a reward. Oddly enough the game, he definitely didn’t remember stealing, was found in his room. Nobody believed in his innocence, especially when the _lovely_ girl had announced she had seen him came out of the room where the box was stored. As a penalty he was ordered to help out in the kitchen for two weeks.

So it was his duty to poison her birthday food in revenge, was it not? Of course not with _real_ poison but something way better. Like making the lovely cake, with its beautiful decorations, tasting like shit by mixing something in the flour. Not to mention the amount of chili and other spices that had happen to fall from his clumsy hands into the remaining birthday meal components.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he missed the footsteps coming to a hold way to close to his hiding spot.

“Kouki-kun.”

He jumped a little at the loud voice directly above him and stared back into two green eyes looking at him with a very angry expression.

“Yes?” he asked back innocently, like he had only yet noticed that someone was searching and shouting after him.

“What are you doing here? And why didn’t you respond when I called for you?”

He gave her his most innocent smile and explained: “I was only sun-bathing. It’s such a nice day outside! And I didn’t want to bother Aimi-chan! I figured she would be happier without me attending her birthday party.”

“Any explanation why you thought it would be nice to mess with the baking and cooking ingredients?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don’t,” she sighed and bend over to grab him. “Stand up.”

He did as he was ordered and promptly tried to escape by running away, but was stopped from a hand closing around his wrist. He cursed inwardly.

“No chance, Kouki-kun. _Now_ we will go into the dining hall and you will apologize to Aimi-chan.”

“No,” he shouted but was silenced by a terrifying look resting on him.

“Yes,” his guardian answered cold. “And I hope for you it will sound truthfully. After that I will figure out a penalty that keeps you away from stupid pranks like this one for awhile.”

The grip around his wrist tightened and he was dragged back to the main entrance of the orphanage against his will. _This sounds wonderful._ Not only wasn’t he asked of his part of the story, especially if he really did it _-of course I did it, but they could have asked!-_ but worst of all he had to apologize to that stupid girl probably in front of nearly the whole orphanage. Why did she got away with everything and he didn’t!?

Finally they were arriving at the dining hall and true to his thoughts it was full of people. Not to mention the girl in a light blue dress, sitting before a beautiful cake decorated with blue flowers, starring at him since they entered the room with the wish of a painful death in her eyes.

_Yeah, that will go well..._

His guardian didn’t hesitate for one moment and brought him across the room to his destination, directly in front of the girl with the blue dress. A grin spread over her face which could be read in two ways: _pleasure_ or more likely _gloating_.

“I’m so sorry your birthday was disturbed like this,” their guardian started. “I’m sure you must feel very upset now. But don’t worry Aimi-chan! Someone is already on their way to get a new cake and order foot for us all. So after that _mean incident_ we will ensure you get a nice birthday party and hopefully forgot about that _prank_. Speaking of-“

She paused and turned to the boy she still held captive. “I think there is someone that wants to apologize for what happened.”

“Want isn’t the right word,” Kouki mumbled, silent enough to not be heard by anybody.

“Go on,” their guardian encouraged him.

“Yeah... As she is saying I apologize for giving your birthday meal a better taste...” he finally managed to say. Something he found out in the next seconds was that these words weren’t exactly the ones their guardian had thought of.

“Kouki-kun!” she shouted angrier then he had seen her in a long while. “Try again.”

“Fine!” he said. “I’m sorry for spoiling your happy party...”

Knowing this was as close to a true apology as Kouki was willing to offer, their guardian seemed satisfied. Aimi wasn’t.

But upon having given an apology the grip around his wrist was released and he was able to escape the dining hall as fast as he could. Reaching an empty hallway he leaned against the wall and looked back to the far door of the dining hall. “...not.”

The rest of the day went by while Kouki stayed in his room reading a book. He decided against going back in the dining hall and grabbing some food for dinner. After the events of the day he had no intention to see anybody and an afternoon without food wasn’t the worst outcome, especially since he kept a secret stock of candies in his bedroom.

The first time he left his room after his forced ‘apology’ was the next day for breakfast. He decided on a spot on the big table were his left and right sights were free of people so he could sit on his own. To his satisfaction no one bothered to sit next to him.

Though, something was off this morning. His gaze went carefully over the staff members present at the moment. Judging from their behavior and the expressions on their faces something definitely had happened. Something he wasn’t involved in... for once. They were looking on their phones, showing each other what they had found and then someone grabbed a pink envelope from the sideboard. _This was strange..._

He bites in his toast still not turning his eyes away from them. Now, they seemed to reread the words written on the letter inside the pink envelope over and over again. _What the hell was written on it?_ Maybe they would tell them, maybe not. But if it was the latter possibility he decided he needed to find it out for himself, sometime when it would be unattended.

It turned out there would be no need for him to sneak into the office, because after every resident of the orphanage had showed up, none other than the head of the staff asked for them to be quiet.

“Good morning everyone!” she announced happily. “I have something important to tell you! I’m not sure if every one of you had heard the actual news...”

Like every time she spoke to them, she seemed to need half a day to reach her main point, so Kouki simply faded her out until something important would come up. And it did. After rattling for ten minutes about how important it was to catch up with what was happening in the world, especially after the world’s state had only became somewhat stable a few years ago, she finally brought up the real topic. _And yes, I had heard about that festival._

“As some of you, who had followed the news, may know some high personality organized a great festival, which will be like a sleep-away camp for young adults all over the country. Free accommodation and food will be provided and, according to the organizers, as much games and fun for the participants as they can imagine. The participants, which will be able to enjoy the trip, can’t buy themselves into it. Instead, like they announced on TV, there was a lottery to choose the lucky participants fairly. They were chosen from a bunch of socially engaged or otherwise outstanding teens and to top it all there will also be a few tickets for teens who simply couldn’t afford such a trip for themselves. Speaking orphan teens, which will get a chance to relax far away from their normal environment and have fun. As it happens the last participants were sorted out yesterday and it seems that someone from our orphanage is chosen to go to the festival!”

Now Kouki was interested. One of them was chosen to get on a free trip to a festival? It sounded great, almost too great and in that moment he wished for nothing more than that it would be him. He really would like to see something new, someone new. Not the orphanage and its residents or his school and its students. But with his luck he would never be chosen. Of course it would be the pretty little princess and not some stray like him. One look over to her position showed him that she was already excited, a glint in her eyes.

“Kouki-kun.”

“Huh?” _What did I do this time?_

“It’s you that is granted the possibility to go to the spring festival. There it is one ticket just for you.”

_Wait what!?_

“That’s a joke isn’t it?” he asked not entirely proceeding what happened.

“No of course it’s not!” the head of the orphanage explained excitedly. “There it is!”

She came over and showed him the letter. And there it was, his name in bold black letters: **Sato Kouki**.

“That’s...” he started but it slipped from his mind what he was about to say.

“Are you excited?”

“Yes...” _At least I thought I was._

“Your flight goes the next weekend and then there is a full month of fun waiting for you!” she encouraged him. “And maybe this will give you a little ease from everything so you can come home more relaxed and balanced than before... I think this little break will do you and also your fellow orphanage inhabitants good.”

_Oh. So that’s it. They’re happy to have the troublemaker out of their house for a month._

There was nothing to do other than starring at the letter, now laid out before him on the table so he could properly read it. Whilst he read it, it didn’t go unnoticed that some very disappointed faces were turned in his direction, obviously angry that he was the one getting all the fun. He didn’t mind and getting that stupid grin out of Aimi-chan’s face for once was nice.

* * *

He sat on his bed, the letter lying next to him on the bed sheets and his bag sitting right behind it. Still starring at a half full bag, Kouki considered what else he should take with him on the trip. After the initial shock of being the lucky one, he was now really happy about the opportunity given to him. Partly because Aimi had chosen to ignore him the whole week, due to her being jealous, and partly because he longed for something new, something different from his everyday routine.

“Now go and let’s have some fun,” he mumbled when finally finishing packing and closing his bag. A few minutes later he was standing at the main entrance of the orphanage and ready to go. One of the guardians would bring him to the airport and stay with him until he was safe in the plane. They had told him that, upon landing at his destination, someone would be already waiting for him to take him from there to the festival grounds. All that was left was the head of the orphanage giving him a final speech about good-behavior and that he shouldn’t pollute the reputation of the orphanage.

So there he was, sitting alone in a plane, looking out of a round window and down to a miniature world way too many kilometers underneath him. Nervously he tugged on a strand of his blackish-plum hair and took out one of his books to calm down his nerves.

 


	2. Meeting new faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “... Also there is still a fourth person we need to wait for before we fly off again.”
> 
> Wait-
> 
> “We need to fly again?” He couldn’t suppress the nausea feeling in his stomach.
> 
> “Yes. How do you think we get from here to an island way down into the ocean?”
> 
> “The festival is on an island!?”
> 
> Maybe he should have invested time to do some research before getting into this.

He couldn’t describe the overwhelming happiness when finally being back on a stable ground. If he had learned something about himself from the flight, than that he doesn’t liked it very much.

He nearly started running out of the plane after landing on the airport. Making his way through a dense crowd of people, all escaping their planes and heading to the area where they will get their bags and travel suitcases back, he felt a bit shaky.

Due to its unique pattern his bag was easy to spot. This made him one of the first to emerge the airport and search around for the Person, who was destined to pick him up. But before he could properly look around he spotted someone else: A girl with waist-long palegreen hair and a bright magenta colored dress. The dress had a bunch of tulle layers underneath which made the skirt part stand away quite a bit. He spotted a small leave pattern in a darker shade of magenta all over the fabric. Matching her clothing she also wore a ribbon the same fabric in her wavy hair. Due to the dress having no sleeves she additionally wore a white blouse underneath, fitting her knee-high socks, which ended in light grey boots.

Her small fingers were tightly clutched around a pink envelope and her face showed a rather lost look.

“Hey,” he greeted while coming over to her spot. “Are you happening to go to the festival as well?”

 She looked up from her feet and nodded.

“Me too!” he went on. “My name is Sato Kouki. What’s yours?”

“Morishita Nozomi,” the girl answered timidly.

“Nice too meet you Morishita-san!” he answered trying to keep the conversation going, which wasn’t easy due to the really reserved attitude of the girl.

“Please call me Nozomi,” the girl stated, “M-Morishita is only the name of the founder of our orphanage a-and I don’t think of it as my surname.”

_Well, that one sounded familiar..._

“Same goes for me,” he says, “So please call me Kouki.”

After hearing those words her face finally lit up. Looking him right into the eyes for the first time, a small smile formed on her lips. “Oh! So you’re not another Ultimate!” She seemed relieved with her conclusion.

“Ultimate?” he asked irritated. “No I’m not. I’m proud to announce that you have the great opportunity to meet a complete normal and definitely unwanted orphan boy. But what’s with that talk about Ultimates? Are some of the other participants coming from Hopes Peak’s?”

This made him curios. After all it would make sense. While only a handful of tickets were given to orphanage children the original thought was to give them to outstanding and special teens as reward for their hard work. So for sure there would be a bunch of Ultimates. Why hadn’t he considered that before?

Nozomi opened her mouth but stopped when she saw a boy running through the front doors towards them. The most outstanding part of his appearance was for sure the silver metallic looking jacket he wore. His light blond hair was shaved short on both sides of his head, while his longer top hair fell lightly into his face. Looking out from under his jacket was an ultramarine shirt, which had the same color like his pants. The pants themselves had been upgraded with two chains dangling from the boys’ hips and a gear pattern all over one of the legs. He wore dark grey leather loafers.

“Nozomi-san I’m back!” he shouted before noticing the boy next to her.

“Oh hey! Are you going to the festival too?” he said happily. It took Kouki a few seconds to dive into the new conversation due to the piercing gaze of the steel-blue eyes of the unfamiliar boy.

“Y-Yes.”

“Good to know! I thought we wouldn’t meet other participants before we make it to the island! ...Ah by the way my name is Morishita Shigeru...it would be fine if you could stick with Shigeru.”

“And before you ask,” he went on with a short glance to Nozomi, “We aren’t related. We only happen to come from the same orphanage.”

“He comes from one too,” Nozomi spoke in between, “He’s not another Ultimate.”

“Oh! I see.”

“Kouki is fine for me too,” he finally managed to say, “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Are there many Ultimates?” he asked, his curiosity taking over.

“Hm...yes,” Shigeru announced. “From what I found out while searching the internet there only five teens in complete coming from an orphanage. All other eleven tickets were handed over to people with an Ultimate Talent. Some of them are still students and some who graduated recently.”

“Really!?” He couldn’t completely free his voice from the shock he was feeling. “So we're five poor orphan children who are trapped with nothing but Ultimates?”

He didn’t know what to think about this development of events. It wasn’t the case that he was afraid of Ultimates, but nonetheless it left a strange feeling knowing that there would be a lot of people with such an impressing talent compared to the ordinary children, which only got the opportunity because they simply had nothing.

“Ah, I think it will be fun!” Shigeru smiled.

Trying to change the topic, Kouki scanned the people around them in search for their Collector. “Have you seen that guy that was destined to collect us and bring us to the festival grounds?”

“Yes!” As ever Shigeru was quick with his answer. “He was here before I went back into the airport to use the toilet. He told us to wait here while they're preparing the helicopter. Also there is still a fourth person we need to wait for before we fly off again.”

_Wait-_

“We need to fly again?” He couldn’t suppress the nausea feeling in his stomach.

“Yes. How do you think we get from here to an island way down into the ocean?”

“The festival is on an island!?”

Maybe he should have invested time to do some research before getting into this. But no, while waiting for his departure he had done nothing other than his usual routine. So here he was completely and utterly lost. Kouki’s only hope was that he didn’t need to face this situation alone and thankfully the other people came more prepared than him.

“...Maybe I should have looked it up...”

“You didn’t get any information beforehand!?” This seems to surprise the other boy.

“Hey,” a female voice called over to them. “Atua gives me a hunch you three are also participants of the festival and that I should introduce myself to you~”

A girl with short spiky hair, which shimmered silver in the sun, walked over to them. She wore a green dungaree, with flower pattern on the front pockets, over a very tight silvery bandeau top. In between the top and her hip a flower tribal tattoo was visible. Silver pearl earrings were swinging on her ears, while she came over to them with a strange smile on her face, her grey garden slippers barely touching the ground. And had she garden tools hanging from a belt on her hip?

“Nice too meet you all! My name is Yonaga Tenshi and I’m the Ultimate Botanist!”

 _Oh. So there are garden tools,_ was all his mind could think at that moment. Shigeru was faster in getting his composure back. “Nice to meet you too!”

He continued in telling her all their names and also that they were no Ultimates but simply lucky orphan children. “Who is that Atua you were referring to earlier?” Shigeru asked after their finished introduction.

“That’s our god, who is watching over us. I’m not granted with his presence but my big sister was! Her every doing was guarded by his hands and thanks to her we’re all under his mercy.”

The first Ultimate they met and of course it had to be one who also worships some crazy god. Kouki sighed silently. He never thought much about religion and gods. It simply didn’t matter to him. Hopefully the girl wouldn’t be too persistent with her god and then everything could go well. How will the other Ultimates be like? Will they also give away a crazy aura like that girl or will they be more normal regardless being an Ultimate?

“Are you ready?” a more mature voice called for them. They turned around to find a mid-aged man standing across the road and waving at them.

“Oh he’s back!” Shigeru was already reaching for his bag. “Let’s go then!”

The small group followed the man over to the parking spot of the airport to a more secluded area. Kouki was able to hear it before he even saw it: straight ahead of them stood a helicopter on a round paved spot, ready to go up into the air. He breathed deeply and forced himself to stay calm. He had survived that stupid flight, he could survive that one too!

The man helped them store their bags in the small space of the helicopter. Without another word Kouki was the first to jump into the helicopter claiming the middle seat in the back. He refused to look outside from an open helicopter while flying. Nozomi and Shigeru took the seats on his right and left, while Tenshi took the one next to the pilot. He felt his body being raised up into the air and the uncomfortable feeling of nausea came floating back.

The loud noise of the helicopter made it impossible to speak without shouting, so he decided to stay silent and rest his eyes on his shoes. During the whole flight he stayed in that position hoping it would be over soon. To his horror the flight lasted a few hours. Where the hell was this island!?

Suddenly Shigeru pulled on the sleeve of his hoodie. “Look. Seems we’re finally there!”

He risked a short look. True to Shigeru’s words a small island was now visible in the stunning blue of the ocean. His first thought was: _Oh please let us land!_ The second thought that crossed his mind was way more unpleasant: when the month was over he would need to go home by the exact way he had come.

He observed the island from above, now more confident because he was about to finally leave the stupid helicopter in favor of a stable ground. It wasn’t big. On the front side he saw a big beach where he could also spot a huge building. Maybe their hotel? Behind it was a huge - _huge for the island_ \- forest only disturbed by grey rock. It seemed like the island was rather mountainous. The only smooth part was the beach side, which took over nearly a fourth of the island.

The landing spot was in the back of the building he had seen from above. Being the first to jump into the helicopter he was also the first to leave. And thank god - _or for all I cared Atua_ \- he had a full month before going through that hell again.

The man told them to go to the main entrance, where they would be welcomed and acquainted with further plans. After that the man excused himself with the words that they were the last participants to arrive and he needed to go home and rest after a whole day of flying back and forth.

The moment the helicopter rose again a loud voice echoing over the whole island made him cringe. “Good evening to you all! Only a few minutes ago our last participants had arrived at the island. Please gather all in the entrance hall of our lovely hotel so we can finally start the festival!”

Did they install speaker all over the island? Because there was no other explanation why the voice would sound so intense and like coming from all sides.

They made their way around the building, which was not much bigger than the orphanage building he was familiar with. Upon entering the hotel they were greeted with twelve foreign faces, all around their age or slightly above.

Only two persons in the middle of the room stood out because they were definitely older. On second glance they also wore similar clothing which looked like a uniform. One of the women began to speak as she saw them entering the room: “Hello there! I’m so glad that our sixteen participants are finally here! But I can guess you sure are all tired from your journey. So we will make this introduction short for now. Anyway there are a few points I need to bring up before you can relax for the rest of the day. Anything else will be discussed during your breakfast in the morning. That’s also when the festival will officially start!”

She made a short pause to let them follow up with her words, then she clapped her hands together and spoke again: “First of all: Welcome everyone! I hope we can make the next month the best of your life so far and give you the energy to proceed further in an excellent future.

The second one is a really important one, so listen good! As some of you may have noticed there is no mobile network available on this island, so your phones wouldn’t be much of use. But don’t worry for the time being we will provide every one of you a small tablet which can be used to communicate with other participants, search for specific information and also to write down notes. You will find your personal tablets in your assigned rooms in the second and third floor of this building. The keys to your rooms are in this small box and I will hand them out after I finished speaking to you all.”

Again she broke her speech for a moment, her fingers fidgeting along the edges of the before mentioned box. “Before I leave you to your evening activities there are only two small announcements left I want to make. For once, even if your tablets had clocks installed, there will be a short morning announcement at 8a.m. and the same in the evening at 10p.m.. This serves as a small reminder when it would be best for you to rest so you won’t push yourself too far. But leave in mind it’s only a little support and not meant as an order.”

“Only one thing left!” she said happily. “And this one also isn’t an order but a request. As you may know there are a few orphan teens here. I have spoken with their guardians and it seemed that all of them aren’t very comfortable with their surnames relating them to their orphanage. So if it’s okay with the rest of you I would request to address to each other by first names during our little festival.”

She gave them a big smile. “And now go! There’s food in the dining hall at the end of the hallway if you’re hungry. So go eat, explore the island or introduce yourselves! We will meet again tomorrow. Until then have fun!”

The two women handed every participant their room key before heading behind a counter and into a room which said ‘staff only’.

Kouki stared blankly at his silver key, showing his name on one side and the number 205 on the other side of an attached tag. Should he head directly to his room? He was interested in the tablet the woman had mentioned before, due to his phone being really old and only useful for sending small texts and calling, but it would be rude if he went out without introducing him to the rest of the students. He looked up and went over where he spotted Nozomi and Shigeru with two unknown teens. According to their appearance they looked like siblings. While one wore a red hiking backpack and matching clothes, the other one looked rather normal in a simple lavender dress with an apron above it. They turned their faces to him as he came closer. Both had the same short brown hair and deep blue eyes.

“Hi,” he started. The short break he did after was enough for Shigeru to pull him nearer to the group and smiled to the others: “That’s Kouki-kun! We already met at the airport!” Turning his had to him Shigeru went on: “These are Sotooka Haruki the Ultimate Climber and Sotooka Keiko the Ultimate Baker!”

“We're twins,” the girl, Keiko, said.

“Nice to meet you two,” he mumbled, regretting that he hadn’t made an escape towards his room.

 


	3. A slow warm up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strange sounding voice caused him to jump and he nearly fell out off his bed. The TV on the wall had sprung to live by itself, showing an island shaped air mattress with a palm tree and the most incredible, a black and white stuffed animal bear sitting on it. And this black and white bear started to tell him that it was now 10 p.m. and time to sleep.
> 
> The trip got weirder every minute he spent on the island.

After being dragged through the whole entrance room by Shigeru he had introduced himself to quite a bunch of people. A bunch of very strange people.

First was a short boy with dark brown hair, way too long for Kouki’s taste, called Ochi Kanaye the Ultimate Architect. He wore black pants, which barely went over his knees, under a beige tunic. The outfit had been completed with a shining black vest and did he also wear make-up? Talking to him seemed rather easy because of the complaisant attitude of the boy, yet he stayed distant.

After that he met a boy with a very loud mouth named Toku Hinata the Ultimate Flute Player. His white hair was styled into a ponytail, while the stare of his light pink eyes made Kouki a bit uncomfortable. Hinata was completely dressed in black, wearing destroyed jeans and a shirt with a band-logo. At least Kouki thought it was one, since he believed he had seen it before. Despite his loud mouth he seemed affable.

Trying to avoid Tenshi and her babble about her strange god they went straight to a boy with more muscles Kouki had ever seen someone his age. The boy introduced himself as Nidai Michio the Ultimate Fencing pro. Obviously the boy had decided in only wearing white pants and showing off his breast muscles. His head was completely shaved, leaving only the impression of new growing black hair.

The last group they approached were two girls already deep in conversation. Something about one of the girls looked familiar to him but he couldn’t quiet name what it was. Nonetheless they introduced themselves as Ikeda Emi the Ultimate Make-Up Artist and Kimura Umeko the Ultimate Actress. _An actress? Maybe that’s why she looked familiar. Could I already have seen a play with her?_

Emi had her blond hair weaved into a lot of thin braids which fell all way down to her knees, only tied together with a ribbon in her neck. Her blue eyes were sparkling with curiosity. She wore a dark blue frilly blouse and mint-green satin pants, which harmonized perfectly with her hair color. Also she definitely had a fable for jewels, wearing some rings, long earrings and two necklaces.

Umeko instead wore a light pink summer dress, which had cute little doodles all over it. Fitting her light appearance she wore white ballerinas with satin straps going up her leg. Her flat mint hair fell down to her shoulders, the ponytail tied back with a clasp. Green eyes looking at them like them as if they were an audience which needed to be analyzed.

Shigeru seemed very interested in the actress’ work and asked her about roles she had played. He probably wanted to know if he already knew her from TV. Kouki used the distracted attention of the boy to finally escape their introducing round only to find himself wondering who he hadn’t met by now. A short look over the students also confirmed his suspicion that some of them had sneaked out. He counted only thirteen students.

The remaining two he hadn’t talked to were a tall girl with warm blond hair falling down in waves around her body and a boy that seemed more interested in the notebook in his hands than anything else.

The girl wore a black and white dotted hairband, to hold back her hair from falling into her face. A dark brown dress surrounded her body, the fabric looking like it was corduroy. It had a tight break at her waist where a bunch of bronze buttons were placed, also there was an orange band formed to a ribbon under her breasts. Brown boots and finger-free brown gloves finished her outfit.

The boy himself wore dark brown pants with a checkered pattern in a slightly lighter color, black shoes, a simple white t-shirt, with a checkered second layer visible at the bottom hem and arms.

Judging from the look on the girls face she was absolutely focused on the boy. So he decided to approach him first. “Hi.” The boy looked up, lilac eyes meeting his. “You do know that you have stalker, do you?”

His gaze flickered for a second to the girl then back to him. “She’s my ex-girlfriend. And I should ad she didn’t like our break-up.”

“I’m Sato Kouki. What’s your name?” After half an hour of too many ‘nice too meet you’ he had decided to drop the phrase.

“Hi Kouki-kun I’m ...Takahashi Jun.” That sounded suspicious in Kouki’s ears especially for the boy only telling him his name.

“Do you have an Ultimate Talent, Jun-san?” he asked curios because Jun hadn’t answered that beforehand like everyone else had before.

“Huh? Oh yes of course I’m...I’m the Ultimate Researcher.” If Kouki didn’t know better he would’ve thought the boy had already lied twice to him while introducing himself. And to tell the truth: He _didn’t know_ it better.

“You don’t have one, do you?” Jun went on, obviously trying to get the attention away from his person. “You’re one of the orphan teens.”

“Yes I am.”

Jun looked back into the notebook he was holding. He seemed lost in thoughts for a moment as if figuring something out. “Do you have any relatives?”

“What-!?” Kouki had no idea why Jun was suddenly asking such a question.

“Could you answer me?” Jun asked respectful.

“Well... No, I’m having none. I mean _they_ even left me without a name... There’s no possibility to be found out that way.”

“I see. Thank you,” said the other boy, going out of the entrance hall without another word and leaving an extremely confused Kouki and a furious girl behind. While concentrated on Jun he had missed the girl slowly approaching him.

“Why did he leave!? What did you say to him?” Kouki jumped upon the sudden resounding angry voice, but regained his composure fast. “Hi! I’m Sato Kouki! Nice too meet y-“

“Don’t talk to me like that!” the girl shouted angry. “What did you want from him?”

“Oh what about _introducing_ myself?”

“You talked longer than that,” she stated simply.

He had no idea what was going on in the mind of the girl. “What’s your problem!?” This girl definitely had more than one issue and he should exit her better earlier than later.

“You’re strange... No wonder he wanted to hide from you in the beach house,” he said incidentally. He had seen one from above, but was pretty sure Jun wasn’t there.

“What-?” she said and stormed out of the entrance hall making her way over to the beach house, were obviously no one would be. Deciding it would be for the best if he wasn’t here when she came back, he made his way down to the dining hall to grab some food before inspecting his new room.

He wasn’t alone in the dining hall after all. Someone seemed to have had the same idea as him: grab some food and hide in your room. A girl around his height, her dark violet hair bound together in a french braid on her side, was storing some food in a black leather bag with a white symbol on it. When he approached her she turned her gaze from the back to him.

She wore three-quarter long tight black gym shorts, a red tunic which was covered with sun, moon & star pattern in a darker shade of red and black sandals. Also she had woven black threads in her braid.

“Hi,” he said for what felt like the hundredth time. “I’m Sato Kouki. Nice too meet you.”

“Nakamura Hana,” she said, grabbing her bag and leaving him without another word.

Following her example he grabbed some food he would eat later and left to inspect his room. An elevator brought him to the second floor of the building where his room was supposed to be. True to the note on his key tag he found a room with pink letters on it, displaying the number 205. He shoved the key into the lock and opened the room.

It was way bigger than his small place back in the orphanage. It held a big four poster bed with white curtains, a wardrobe and an armchair as well as a table in one edge of the room. On the wall above the armchair hung a small TV.

Both walls and floor were covered with greyish-white floorboards. Only a big window showing him a good view of the beach and ocean disturbed the pattern. What surprised him the most was the big bathroom only there for him. He was only familiar with shared showers and toilets.

Carefully taking in the look of his new home for the next month he closed the door behind him. The first thing he did was throwing himself onto the bed, which proved to be very comfortable. After lying there and thinking about the day for nearly fifteen minutes he decided to take a closer look around. He hadn’t seen the tablet yet. He found it placed on a sideboard next to the window. It was slightly bigger than his phone, but still fitting perfectly in his hands.

Out of curiosity he pushed the power button. The display immediately flickered on and turned a pleasant shade of blue. While starting the device, his name showed up on the display. After a few more seconds a set menu with different options, like chat, contacts, report cards, map and...two free spots(?), appeared. His first try was to touch the free spots in the lines but nothing happened so he went over to what interested him next: the report cards. What did that even mean?

While touching the corresponding line, the set menu vanished and made place for sixteen faces of sixteen students he had met prior (excluding two). He randomly touched one of them, the image of Shigeru. It revealed a better view of his picture and also some data belonging to him like his name, birth date, body measurements and his blood type!? But nothing else. He closed Shigeru’s report card to open his own. There it was: A picture of him, the header reading Sato Kouki, the facts saying his birthday was at the 25th of January, that he was currently 166cm tall and 54kg light and that his blood type was A. _How did they know?_ Even he didn’t know what his blood type was until reading it in this report card. How was that even possible? His eyes were caught by two lines at the end of his report card. Likes: sketches and drawings and dislikes: caraway seeds. _What!?_ Did Shigeru’s card have those lines too? A short glance showed him that, yes, he had that too and it read: likes: metal and dislikes: gloating.

He got back into the main menu completely and utterly confused on what to think about the tablet. His fingers touched the contact line. Again sixteen faces lit up with the opportunity to text or call one of them. This leaves only the map and chat line left. He opened the chat, which proved to be an app where everyone was part in a big group chat.

The map showed the whole island from above. But only the beach and the building allowed a more detailed look upon touching the corresponding area of the island. Even a complete drawing of the architecture of the hotel was shown. To his surprise the face of the student belonging to the room was shown in the outline. He closed the tablet and stored it in the front pocket of his hoodie.

A look out of the large window with a louver covering it half, he saw two students sitting on the low wall separating the building from the beach. He recognised none of them, so they must be the two he hadn’t met yet. His gaze moved further over the beach until finding another pair of students. And this time he recognized them. _Poor Guy,_ he thought, _Seems like she found him after all._ It was Jun and the girl who had observed him earlier. Despite the awkward situation the two looked pretty close.

He went back to his bag and began to unpack it. When nearly everything had been stored within the room a quiet sound and a short vibration from his front pocket caught his attention. The tablet read that he had received a message from Shigeru. He tapped on it and right away a window opened which showed a conversation history of the two.

 **Shigeru** : Hi! Have you finished unpacking?

Kouki decided to answer right away, leaving the last pieces in his bag, abandoned.

 **Kouki** : Hey. Yes I am. How do you like your room?

 **Shigeru** : It’s nice. What about a walk along the beach? Or are you tired?

 **Kouki** : No a walk is fine! I will be in the entrance hall in 10 min

Even though being on a tropic island, he had felt cold upon arriving, probably due to the ocean breeze and it only being spring. So he searched for one of his scarves in the wardrobe and put it on. Ten minutes later, like he said, he was standing in the entrance hall waiting for Shigeru to arrive. He was determined to ask the other boy about his opinion about the tablets given to them.

Around ten minutes late Shigeru finally came out of the hallway. “I’m sorry but Nozomi asked me to help her store some of her things at the top of her wardrobe.”

“No need to be sorry,” Kouki shrugged and the two of them went out of the building and down to the ocean.

He couldn’t see the couples from prior anymore. Maybe they had gone inside to eat or rest. He hoped for Jun that he would find an excuse to escape the strange girl.

“Have you already met everyone?” Shigeru asked.

“Nearly,” he answered.

“Me too,” Shigeru said, “There was only one girl that simply looked at me like I wasn’t worth her time and walked away without saying anything. She had long light blond hair.”

“Oh! That must be the stalker girl!”

“What!?”

Kouki explained to his friend how his encounter with the girl had gone. Specifically that it went only a little better than Shigeru’s.

“Wait!” he cried out realizing something and getting his tablet out. “Shouldn’t her name be displayed here?”

He opened the report cards and touched her picture. But when it opened it only showed a better view of her picture, nothing else.

“Huh?” This confused him. “But everyone else is there!”

“You sure?” Shigeru asked. “It seemed like the report cards update themselves when you interact with the person in question.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I took a look at it before meeting the last persons in the dining hall and it only showed me details about the ones I already talked to. But after introducing myself to the rest of the students their details were there as well.”

This confused Kouki only more. He had absolutely no explanation on how the tablets work, but upon reaching a better understanding he decided to simply go with it.  

“That thing is strange,” he announced.

“True,” Shigeru answered but didn’t seem very worried about it. “But it’s great isn’t it?”

“Do you really like sugar cubs?”

He chuckled. Of course he did, preferably not contaminated with any liquid.

“Yes I do.”

“That’s unhealthy.”

“Maybe. But what’s with that? You _like_ metal?”

“Uh...” Shigeru had gone a bit paler than before however not looking too upset. “Yes I do. It may sound a bit strange but I...Uh...will explain that to you another time if that’s fine with you?”

“Sure,” Kouki said. He didn’t want to push the other in telling things he wasn’t comfortable with by now.

When the sun started to vanish behind the ocean and the light of the day was fading, both of them decided to head back to the hotel. He wished Shigeru a good night and got back into his room. After washing his face and putting on his pyjamas he searched for the food he had brought. His decision fell on one of the tarts and he started gnawing on it slowly. He was halfway through when his tablet attracted his attention again. This time the contact who had messaged him was Jun.

 **Jun** : I hope you’re not already asleep! I wanted to thank you for your attempt to help me this afternoon! Akari-san told me you distracted her by given her false hints on my location. Though she didn’t pronounce it that way... I’m sorry if she bothered you! Maybe we can have a talk tomorrow?

 **Kouki** : I’m still awake. Don’t worry too much! Everything is fine. Sorry she caught you nonetheless (saw you earlier). I think a talk would be okay.

 **Jun** : Haha yes she did. So...see you tomorrow during breakfast! good night.

 **Kouki** : ‘night.

The conversation felt a bit weird to him and what was it Jun wanted to talk about? Maybe about the girl and why she had behaved odd towards him and, sure enough, everyone else? It seemed like he needed to wait until the next morning to get his answers from Jun. Nonetheless he had gathered new information: the girl’s name was Akari.

A strange sounding voice caused him to jump and he nearly fell out off his bed. The TV on the wall had sprung to live by itself, showing an island shaped air mattress with a palm tree and the most incredible, a black and white stuffed animal bear sitting on it. And this black and white bear started to tell him that it was now 10 p.m. and time to sleep.

_The trip got weirder every minute I spent on the island. What will happen next?_

He didn’t dwell on these thought for long. His exhaustion from the long day took finally over and he fell into a heavy and dreamless sleep.


	4. Killing Spring Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What a nice group of students you are! I can’t describe how happy I am to be allowed to play my little game with such lovely participants! As promised yesterday our festival shall begin with the ending of breakfast. All you need to know and all questions that may form in your mind will be answered, so we can experience our fun time together. Let’s go ahead and start these year’s Killing Spring Festival!”
> 
> Kouki was staring blankly on the screen. What!?

The next day Kouki woke up to exactly the same announcement telling him it was now 8 a.m. and time to get out of bed. He hurriedly got showered and dressed not wanting to be too late for breakfast. He picked some ripped dark blue jeans, a light grey shirt with a hood, a purple scarf and black sneakers. The shirt had strips hanging from the hem on its right and left side and also a big black symbol covering its back. Following the example of his fellow participants to not dress to simple he also decided to put on black bands on his right arm.

On his way down to the dining hall he met with Haruki, the climber. “Good morning,” he said politely while suppressing a yawn. It took him a moment to figure out that something was definitely wrong with the boy. Haruki looked scared...?

“M-Morning,” Haruki stammered, not wanting to met his gaze.

“Is something wrong?” To be true Kouki had absolutely no idea what could’ve caused the other boy to be so scared. Nothing bad had happened over night, had it? Maybe he had gotten bad news from home...but was that even possible at all? No it couldn’t be. Hadn’t they yesterday been told that there was no way to communicate with someone outside the island? So what happened that terrified Haruki that much? Judging from the look on the boys face it must have been really bad.

He never got an answer to his question, so the two of them walked in silence to the dining hall. Haruki’s eyes the whole way focused on the floor.

When they reached their destination he was greeted with even more faces showing the same scared expression as Haruki. _What was the meaning of this?_

He looked around. It seemed like the two of them were the last ones to arrive so he checked the mood of every student present. There were Haruki, Keiko, Kanaye, Hinata, Tenshi, Michio and Emi all of them with similar looks, different shades of fear shown on their faces. Next were Jun, Umeko, a short boy and a girl with grey hair, who simply showed no emotion at all besides a slight sign of wariness. The last ones were Nozomi, Shigeru, Hana, the stalker girl... Akari and himself, looking more confused and irritated than anything else. _What caused this?_

The unpleasant quiet walk with Haruki finally ended when they parted ways to get something to eat from the buffet in the kitchen. After filling his plate Kouki found himself sitting between Shigeru and Jun, of course Jun’s other side occupied by Akari.

Even though not knowing what was going on, there was no doubt something was very wrong. Nearly no one talked and only nibbled on their food. The air felt heavy with what was about to come and Kouki hated how much the mood had changed since yesterday. It was a complete turn around to the cheerful people from the day prior. What got to him was that the reason why it had happened was beyond his reach. This thoughts made him feel more sick like he had ever felt before. _Wasn’t this supposed to be a happy trip? What happened?_

When he reached a point where he couldn’t take it anymore he turned to Jun to ask the boy about his thoughts on the sudden mood shift, choosing the exact moment the TV in the dining hall turned on. _Why is there even a TV in here!?_ He wasn’t really surprised to see that dump bear again. But what surprised him was the now straight out panicked looks in some faces. _Do they know more about that bear or the meaning of it?_ He took a closer look at it. While it's body was divided in the middle between black and white colors, the bear also had one eye less. Instead of the second eye was a red scar. Something about that special appearance tugged against his mind but he couldn’t grasp it.

“Hello everyone!” it said way too cheerful. “The name’s Monokuma! But I think most of you already knew me!”

“What a nice group of students you are! I can’t describe how happy I am to be allowed to play my little game with such lovely participants! As promised yesterday our festival shall begin with the ending of breakfast. All you need to know and all questions that may form in your mind will be answered, so we can experience our fun time together. Let’s go ahead and start these year’s Killing Spring Festival!”

Kouki was staring blankly at the screen. _What!?_

Then a realization hit him. He now knew why the appearance of the bear had looked strangely familiar. He had seen it before. _Danganronpa_. The name they got for those sick killing games the followers of Enoshima Junko had used to torture Ultimates and throw them into despair. It couldn’t be-?

While trying to convince his mind to not freak out and instead follow and most important understand the words the bear was saying, he heard someone whisper next to him. It was Jun. “So he won’t show up in person? That’s strange...”

Regardless the bear was going on with his(?) show. That was when a second realization hit him. The reason why some of them had looked so scared this morning, it was because they already knew. They knew it because of the bear’s appearance in the evening and morning announcements!

“Ah...but what a host I’m not telling you the rules of our little game! But I’m sure, looking in your sweet faces, some may already know them.” He interrupted his speech to giggle while holding his palms before his mouth _._ “No worries, nobody will be left behind, I will give you all a short overview-! Anyway every rule will be added to your tablet so you can look them up whenever you want after I’m done. ...Uh, but there’s something new! Of course it would be boring if our killing game would be the same every time, therefore I made a few revisions.”

“ **First rule** : Monitors, speakers and other observation objects on the island are not to be damaged. Violation of this rule will be punished.”

Kouki felt like he needed to throw up.

“ **Second rule** : To graduate and leave the island one must commit a murder without being found out during a class trial, which will be held shortly after the victim is found. The culprit can leave the island after that, while everyone else will be punished. If the culprit is exposed during the trial only he will be punished. Participating in a trial is mandatory and will be punished by disregard.

Aaand here comes the first addiction regarding the second rule! When there are only 5 participants left there will be no more class trials, but a brand new killing showdown! Which means that every participant needs to work out for themselves how to get off the island, because only _one_ can finally achieve the graduation goal! But the key for graduation can only be used if all other participants are dead by the final moment.

 **Third rule** : A body discovery announcement will be played immediately when a body is discovered for the first time by three or more people.

 **Fourth rule** : You are free to explore every part of the island. There are no restrictions concerning forbidden areas.

 **Fifth rule** : You aren’t allowed to leave the island, disrespecting this rule will end in punishment.

 **Sixth rule** : Your tablets are personal and precious objects, destroying them on purpose will be punished.

 **Seventh rule** : Further rules can be added to the game regulations every time.

Sooo like I said before, if you want to look up a rule again, all of them are added by now into your personal tablet!”

This was a nightmare, was it? Kouki’s mouth hung slightly open while he stared at the TV. If this was a joke it was a really bad one. He had heard how many damage and terror the original killing games had caused, this was simply not a topic to make fun of. But still it had to be a joke, had it not? Someone making fun of them thinking it would be a good laugh to hoodwink them with this show. _It had to be this way._

Though, looking for a hint into the faces of the others didn’t help very much. Especially seeing Jun’s concerned and thinking expression. _Why I am here?_

“Back to business guys,” Monokuma shouted through the speakers of the TV, “Now if everyone is familiar with the rules, I want to give you a short overview over the incredible technology this island provides. For example a beautiful device, which prevent us from being spotted on a single radar in this world. Another thing is the camouflage shield. You wouldn’t think something like that really existed! I mean come on! If someone had told me there is a computer, which can build a shield to hide a complete island I would have said: ‘No way’! But it’s true! From above, our sweet island will just look like the rest of the blue ocean, isn’t that incredible!? Oh and I nearly forgot! Of course there's also the unavailable possibility to communicate with a single someone or something outside the island. But no need to worry on the island you will be monitored everywhere!”

 _There’s no way this could be true! It can’t! Or can it-?_ His body had never felt so numb and cold before. It was like the bear's words had drained all warmth out of him, Monokuma had truly shocked him to his core.

“Only one thingy left for now! I wish you all a beartiful first day on your island! Go ahead have fun and start killing already!”

With those words the TV screen went blank and the bear disappeared from their view. There was a deadly silence in the dining hall, because no one trusted their voice enough to be heard aloud.

“If...if this was a joke than it’s a really bad one,” Haruki managed to get out, his voice shaking. “To make fun of the horror my grandma had to go through!”

 _His grandmother?_ Who was he talking about? Did he happen to have a relative, who was forced to participate in one of the former killing games he had heard of? _But he is right in what he says, this joke goes way to far... Danganronpa is not a topic to joke about.  
_

“B-But it can only be a joke, can it?” Shigeru next to him whispered.

The others were also recovering slowly from their shock, shouting voices rising from all over the room now. Most of them demanding for whoever put that joke to come forward. He also heard more saying about involved relatives and how that makes such a joke even more morbid. _So there are more of them with relatives from former killing games?_

He didn’t concentrate much on what they were exactly saying, being mostly focused on the empty plate in front of him, trying to steady his trembling and racing heart. Why did it affect him so much? While his brain was constantly telling him that this couldn’t be true his body seemed to see their situation quite the opposite, namely shaking with fear. He would look completely embarrassed when the joke would finally be revealed. But this didn’t count only for him.

His gaze fell upon Jun. The boy still had an unreadable expression on his face. He looked definitely too calm regarding their situation and the reaction of everyone else.

“Why are you so calm?” he blurted out. _Maybe he had something to do with it!?_

 Jun didn’t answer. Instead he stood up and left the dining hall, for once leaving back a too shocked Akari to follow him immediately.

“I want to go out of here,” Shigeru said after a minute. Kouki couldn’t tell if he meant only the dining hall or their whole situation, but he simply nodded and followed the other male out. They weren’t the only ones leaving. Everyone seemed to gather together in small groups, avoiding anyone else and discuss what had happened only with a few selected people. _Wouldn’t it be better to stick together and find the truth?_ But judging from his own mental state at the moment and the fact that nearly all students were simply strangers to him he found that he himself wasn’t ready for discussing such a heavy topic in public. And in accordance opening up to everyone. He felt fine with Shigeru for now, him being the only one Kouki felt yet comfortable with.

Upon arriving at the entrance hall they were greeted with a loud crash. A small group of people tried to break into the locked staff room. The students were: Haruki, Michio, Keiko and Hinata. It took Michio only two attempts to get the door out of its frame and thus open. Out of curiosity Shigeru and he followed the others into the room. The room were the two women, who had welcomed them yesterday, had vanished after. The absolute _empty_ room without any window or second door to get out. There was no furniture, no carpet, not a single sign that the room had been used at all. But how could that be? He had seen the women entering. Where were they? And why would they enter such a room at all?

“Nothing...” Haruki said, his voice fading.

Hinata looked irritated. “That’s odd.”

“What about the women from yesterday? Where are they?” Michio wanted to know.

“Gone...” Tears were welling up in Keiko’s large blue eyes, she seemed dazed. “They must be somewhere on the island!” Before one of them could stop her she was running out of room.

They found her again sitting on the beach and crying. All he could hear were a few muttered words Keiko tended to repeat steadily: “It can’t be! It can’t be! Grandma...Aoi...w-why!? It can’t be!”

Haruki went over to her and hugged his sister to comfort her with soothing words. The others stayed silently around the two. When she finally had calmed down a little Haruki excused them both and went with his sister back to their rooms.

“Should we have a look around the beach and this part of the island?” Hinata suggested breaking the occurred silence. “Maybe we find a hint where the two women from yesterday had gone to?”

Due to lack of better ideas and happy for something to distract them, Kouki and Shigeru followed Hinata and Michio the whole noon and afternoon searching for any hint where the women could hide. They came up with nothing, not one sign of another living being besides the sixteen of them, nor any hint of living at all. All they found were traces left behind by...them.

When they finally called an end to their search, Kouki excused himself as fast as possible to go back to his room. He needed some time alone, to let the happenings of the day truly settle in, so his mind could start to understand what he had heard in the morning. Still, up until now no one had disbanded their situation as a joke.

Kouki spent the most of the late afternoon and evening laying on his bed and starring at the ceiling while his mind was over-thinking. He didn’t even leave his room for dinner, feeling not like going out of his room and meeting the others. So all he got himself to eat were some sweets he had brought the day prior. Before he let himself finally drift into an uneasy sleep he checked his tablet a last time only to reveal that he had received a message. 

 **Jun** : ...because I already knew


	5. Day 1 - Adjusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How do we find out this is not a morbid joke?” Umeko asked.
> 
> As if on command the TV flickered on again. “So you still think this is a joke?” Monokuma said sarcastically through the speakers. “Maybe you all want to check on the staff room again, after violating its entrance yesterday.”
> 
> He laughed manically and the TV turned off.

He jolted awake due to the creepy morning announcement from the even more creepy bear. Before bothering to get himself out from under the blanket, Kouki took a second look at Jun’s message. _Did he really try to tell me that he knew beforehand something like this would happen? That someone would tell them that they were in a killing game!?_ Even though, he definitely needed to talk about the meaning of this message with the other boy.

While using the tablet he saw another notification. Obviously he had received more messages, this time through the group chat. So he opened the associated app.

**Chiyo** : Maybe it would be a good idea if everyone could be there for breakfast so we may speak about what happened yesterday. A good time would be 8:30 a.m.

Chiyo(?) This was a name he had no face to connect with. The name sounded feminine that was why he assumed it had to be the grey haired girl. This left only one boy still without a name.

**Jun** : I think that's a good idea! See you there

**Haruki** : Ok

After that nearly everyone started to text their agreement, so he decided to do the same.

**Kouki** : Sounds good

He was sure the scheduled meeting wouldn’t end in an easy morning talk, so he made himself ready for what was to come. A glance on the built-in clock in his tablet showed Kouki it was nearly time. Not wanting to be late he hurried towards his bath room, but regardless his rush he didn’t exit his room until 8:30 a.m. had passed.

It was a few minutes later when Kouki finally arrived at the dining hall. Fortunately he was not the last one who had yet to come. He only counted eleven students so far.

He greeted the present people with a short ‘Good Morning’ and sat down on the same place as yesterday, the spot next to Jun. He decided he would speak to him after their breakfast meeting. Upon waiting for the rest of them he gave all of the present students an once-over. Most seemed to have calmed down but still hold a gleam of fear in their eyes.

It took a few more minutes till everyone finally had arrived. At the time the last one, namely Hana, came into the dining hall a girl with shoulder long grey hair stood up, her curls wagging due to the hectic movement. He recognized her as the girl he had seen on the wall in front of the hotel. Which lead him to the conclusion that this had to be Chiyo.

She seemed to love a gothic clothing style. She wore a black and white patterned blouse under a black corsage. Sticking to her style, her outfit was completed with a shining satin skirt and high black boots. Her hands were hidden under gloves sewed from the same fabric then her skirt was.

“I wish you all a Good Morning,” she spoke calm and clearly but with an undeniable reprint in her voice. “Before we start our breakfast together, I think we need to speak about what happened yesterday...”

He had to acknowledge that her voice didn’t tremble for second while speaking of said memory. Despite her not looking much older than himself she already had a leading aura surrounding her.

“Yusei-kun, ...” _Hm? Could that be the other boy I had seen with her?_ The only other person he didn’t know until now _._ He looked around until his eyes found the boy. He was rather tall. _Why does every one in here have to be taller than I? Even most of the girls..._

But back to his examination. Yusei had shoulder long blond hair, which was bound into a high ponytail. He dressed rather simply in a beige button-up shirt with wrapped up sleeves and blackish-brown striped pants. On his neck was the outline of a tattoo visible which then vanished under his shirt.

“Umeko-san, Kanaye-kun and I had a long talk after that...event yesterday. We decided to search the island for any clue of the two women from the day prior, the women we thought were our guardians during the festival. As you can discover we didn’t find anything significant and I have heard from others too that they hadn’t had much luck either. Sure, the area we were able to search wasn’t that big being it only half a day time, but, and I think that’s the important clue, is that none of them had a reason to go further away from us, when they should originally stay by our side. So to say that they can’t be found around the hotel is very strange...”

She paused for one moment looking at the expressions the other fifteen students made while staring back at her. “Maybe...maybe we should discuss the possibility that this wasn’t a joke after all...”

“There’s no way!” Michio immediately shouted.

“But why would someone do that to us?” Keiko’s voice sounded high-pitched and afraid.

“First I thought it may be _us_ as a revenge because our relatives survived their killing games but this can’t be, can it? Not all of us have such relatives,” Chiyo spoke up again.

“Who are those who had relatives participating in a killing game?” It was the first time since their introduction he heard Emi speak up.

It turned out Emi, Chiyo, Haruki, Keiko, Kanaye, Hinata, Tenshi and Michio all claimed to have relatives with a killing game background history. This would leave Nozomi, Shigeru, Hana, Akari, Jun, Umeko, Yusei and himself without one. Seemed they were splitted half.

“Isn’t it embarrassing how the threat of such a simple show can cause so much panic?” Kanaye declared. “If it turns out as a joke we will end up humiliated.”

“But what if not?” Tenshi’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

“How do we find out this is not a morbid joke?” Umeko asked.

As if on command the TV flickered on again. “So you still think this is a joke?” Monokuma said sarcastically through the speakers. “Maybe you all want to check on the staff room _again_ , after violating its entrance yesterday.”

He laughed manically and the TV turned off.

“The staff room?” Chiyo replied. “But wasn’t it completely empty yesterday?”

Jun looked at her, careful considering his next words: “Yes, but maybe we should do as Monokuma said and go check it again.”

They hesitated at first to follow the bear’s order but finally everyone was walking in the direction of the staff room. Chiyo, Jun and Umeko were the first ones to arrive, but the rest of them followed short after.

Kouki stopped dead in his tracks as he got a first look of the situation unfolding in front of him in the former empty room. The room was still lacking all things a normal room to live in would provide, but...the two women were now no longer missing.

Here they were, in the middle of the room, lying in a pink pool of their own blood. Their skin had changed to a color as pale as snow and their bodies looked cold like ice. None of them would ever be able to move again. The smell of cold metal and sweet death hung in the air and made his head spin.

The cause of death was no question at all. Someone had stabbed them all over their upper body with a sharp weapon. Over and over again.

_No!_

He clapped a hand over his mouth and stepped backwards. Constantly trying to stop himself from throwing up.

_No!_

They heard the TV in the entrance hall crack and if this was the excuse he had waited for Kouki ran out of the room.

“Upupupu~. What lovely faces full of despair you all make! Are you all still sure this is a joke?”

_No! No, no, no, no!_

He felt his vision getting blurry, his head still in a dazed state.

_This was a lie. A horrible lie._

He ran back into his room before he could collapse on the floor in front of everyone. He threw himself on his bed and started crying.

_This can’t be happening..._

Kouki didn’t know how long he stayed in this shocked state. He was finally brought back to reality when someone knocked on his door. Hesitantly he stood up and walked slowly towards the door only to find Jun on the other side of it.

“How are you doing?” the other boy asked in his irritating calm voice. Also one look at Kouki’s appearance had surely showed him how he was doing.

_Pathetic_.

His mind was still too stunned to enforce a normal conversation, so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: “You seem not very taken aback by all of that.”

“Can I come in?”

Not giving an answer, Kouki simply stepped out of the way for Jun to enter his room. Both of them settled down on his bed.

“Of course I am,” Jun, at last, managed to say. “But it’s not that I didn’t expect this to happen...it’s mostly the reason why I'm here.”

_What!?_ Kouki was stunned by the words spoken from the other boy and therefore let him go on without interruption.

“I-I wasn’t sure of it but I thought something about that festival seemed odd... Of course no one believed me...even my parents...” He paused for a short moment. “They simply told me I shouldn’t go if I don’t want, but I felt somewhat responsible. And after I found out that Akari was going there too...I made my decision. So to answer your question, yes I am shocked and afraid but upon landing here I had waited every minute for something like that to happen.”

“So I hope this satisfies your question because I can’t give you more.”

“I-Yes.” He wasn’t sure if he understood Jun’s intentions completely but he got the gist of it. Before he could get his mind to find any other words to answer to the other boys explanation, a soft sound told him he had a new message. The display of his tablet lit up and he could see Shigeru’s icon.

**Shigeru** : Are you ok for a walk?

“Seems like he needs you,” Jun said, not hiding that he had read a personal message without asking. “Are you okay?”

Kouki sighed heavily. After all, his mind had become way clearer and his thoughts were finally calming down due to Jun’s soothing presence. He was somehow fixed for the moment but he was sure the picture of the dead women would stay in his mind a while longer.

“I think I’m fine,” he answered. “But I should go and make sure Shigeru-kun is also alright.”

Jun only nodded.

“Do you want to come t-?”

“I’m sorry but I need to go and see someone else too!” Jun exclaimed before Kouki could even finish his sentence.

“You still owe me a talk.”

Jun looked a bit irritated. “Huh?”

“About what happened with Akari,” Kouki explained to him to make his point clear.

“Oh yes you’re right! Maybe we can delay it until tomorrow after breakfast? If that’s okay with you.”

He studied the expression in Jun’s face or better what he could glimpse of it. Obviously it happened to be a topic he wasn’t too comfortable speaking about. But they had worse problems, so he decided to wait another day for finally getting a chance to talk to Jun more and mostly ask him a lot of questions. This boy did definitely know more than what was good for him.

“Don’t worry. But I will hold you to that after breakfast tomorrow.”

Jun nodded and left. This left Kouki picking up his tablet.

**Kouki** : Sure. Outside the hotel in 5 minutes?

**Shigeru** : Yes! Thank you!

While making his way out of the hotel, Kouki took the route through the backdoor next to the dining hall to avoid being near those dead bodies again. He circled around the building until he found himself next to Shigeru, who was sitting on the wall waiting for him. He still looked terrified.

“Can we go away from that,” Shigeru gave a short flicker back to the main entrance, “...place?”

Kouki nodded and started to walk alongside the beach, Shigeru following right behind him. The first twenty minutes of their walk proceeded next to each other in a comfortable silence until the hotel was only a little black box in the distance.

“This is a nightmare, isn’t it?” Shigeru finally spoke up trying to get the trembling out of his voice. “But we need to go on right?”

Kouki flinched at the sudden change of direction Shigeru’s words took, but he had to admit the other boy was right with what he was saying.

“I mean all I want to do is hiding in my room and cry until someone will come and save me, but...no one will come, will they? That bear already told us. There’s no way to locate, to _even see_ this island after all. They may try but they won’t find us.”

Hearing those words out loud didn’t do Kouki’s mental state any good. He felt a sudden urge to run away and hide again.

“So we need to look after ourselves,” Shigeru managed to say. His voice getting calmer with every spoken word. “We will get out of this hell together, will we Kouki-kun?”

In a complete loss of words he stuttered: “Y-yes. I...I hope so, Shigeru-kun.”

The other boy gave him a warm smile, which made his fear melt away a little.

“That’s enough of that horrible topic for today,” Shigeru started again after a short silence. “If it’s okay I want to know more about you, because I think it’s important to have friends in a time like this and due to us all being strangers, we need to make some.”

Kouki was taken aback by this statement, but couldn’t deny that he himself wanted to know more of the other boy. And if they were trapped for an unknown amount of time on this island it would be best to have someone around.

“There’s not much to know about me,” he said slowly, “No one obviously wanted me that’s why I ended up in an orphanage for the most part of my life, but I think you can understand that, since you also have a name given to you from a guardian and not a parent.”

“That’s true.”

“So what can I say else? The most part of a normal day I like stealing some sweets from the kitchen, reading a good novel while hearing music and thinking of new pranks to play on a silly girl, who annoys me constantly.”

“So you like reading?” Shigeru asked back, ignoring the stealing and prank part.

“Hm... Sometimes I also like to draw whatever came to my mind.”

“Buuut,” Kouki interrupted as Shigeru was about to open his mouth to give an answer or ask another question. Something from an earlier talk had come to his mind. “You still need to explain me your obsession with metal!”

“Ah! Oh that... It’s not an obsession!”

Kouki shot him an unbelievable glance. “Say you.”

As a response the other boy sighed. “I simply like metal because you can create so much different things with this kind of resource. Also it...” He stopped and seemed for a moment deep in thought, as if he was considering if he should tell him or not. “...it is a part of me.”

That statement definitely caught Kouki off-guard. “Part of you? What do you mean?”

“I...,” he started searching for words to go on. “This will sound weird...”

If possible that made Kouki’s curiosity even worse. But he kept himself from saying something which might be misunderstood by Shigeru and would upset him.

“M-My skin...it’s partly normal but mixed up with a metal alloy, so it’s stronger than normal human skin.”

“Huh?” _Shigeru was right that sounded weird. What the hell was he talking about?_

“I know it sounds fictional but somehow the metal alloy build a coherent existence with my skin,” Shigeru said defensive. He must have seen his expression. “My guardians thought someone might have experimented on me before abandon me at the orphanage and that’s why...”

He thought about Shigeru’s words, while the other boys voice trailed off. Had someone really experimented with a baby and then just left him behind when there was no further use for him anymore? This world had really been rotten the last years...

“So your skin is super solid and strong. That will make it hard to kill you!” Kouki said with a wide grin in an attempt to joke on both Shigeru’s heavy past and their current situation in a killing game.To his delight Shigeru laughed over his words and they continued their trip with a more light chatter.

 

* * *

 

It was the first evening all sixteen of them stayed together for dinner, mostly to have another discussion about their current situation.

“But if we consider this a real killing game does that mean there is a mastermind hidden between us?” Emi’s voice was clearly shaking with fear.

“Not necessarily,” Chiyo answered, “They could hide somewhere on the island. There’s no need to be part of our group.”

“There’s no clue on what could be the most possible,” Umeko stated.

“But there is,” Yusei’s voice rose up over the chatter of the students. “We were all together during that speech of this stupid bear and also when we discovered the...bodies. This can only mean that there’s someone else on this island or that the mastermind had an accomplice hiding.”

“It could be or not,” Jun said. “We should also consider that all of this was planned beforehand.”

“So you say the bodies were put there before we even arrived at breakfast this morning?” Chiyo sounded not convinced. “Then it truly could’ve been every one of us.”

“Maybe,” he acknowledged. “We should consider it a possibility.”

“Did anyone go near this room before coming to the dining hall?” Yusei asked, obviously to determine a clearer outlook of the circumstances of their case. But no one did and so they were back to square one.

This wasn’t a conversation Kouki could be part of. He simply asked himself how this group of a few students was able to discuss such a topic so casually. It wasn’t that he didn’t know they had no other choice but to do so, but still...

While his mind was still trying to proceed and adjust, he watched those three argue like he would watch someone solving a murder in a crime series.


	6. Day 2 - Living on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There had been so much destruction in the last decades, destroying the former world Kouki had never seen, since he was born way after the tragedy had happened, crushing all forth coming hope. Even to this day, governments, public facilities, like schools, were nothing more than improvised attempts in regaining what they had lost so many years ago. Somewhere around the time he tuned five the wars and attacks finally were less and less until the world reached the stable and peaceful state it was in today. 'Not for us,' he thought bitter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter has a bit of background story time about how I see the AU this is happening in :)

Waking up a short amount of time before the morning announcement he looked forward to his meeting with Jun. Kouki took his time to get himself ready because they wouldn’t start their breakfast discussion before everyone was gathered in the dining hall. And this wouldn’t happen until half past 8.

Reaching for his tablet he clicked through the profiles of the two students he had met just yesterday and finally it seemed all available report cards had been filled out. The students being Tojo Chiyo the Ultimate Tutor and Ito Yusei the Ultimate Photographic Memory.

The first thing he had been told about after entering the dining hall was that the dead bodies had vanished and the room was completely cleared of any trace that they had ever been there. This fact send a shiver down his spine. Nothing seemed impossible for whoever trapped them onto this island if they could even let two bodies vanish like this. Two bodies he had seen with his own eyes. Two bodies that had been lying in a pool of blood.

“Morning,” he greeted Shigeru and Jun, who were already sitting in their usual spots, trying to get the reappearing images from the day prior out of his head.

It was not until he was halfway through his breakfast that Chiyo decided to speak up: “I thought about plans for today. How we can make our time more valuable to improve our situation and not waste it while being listless. I think it would be for the best if we get a better overview over the layout of this island. So Yusei-kun, Jun-kun and I thought that we might divide the island in four parts, which can each be investigated by groups of four people. Goal is to draw and mark the most important and maybe helpful characteristics of the landscape.”

“Does someone have...any objections?” she went on, not really waiting for some. “If not then I may divide us in four groups. It’s easier this way because we honestly can’t have any more time wasting by you trying to find out who you want to group with. ...So group one will contain Shigeru-kun, Nozomi-san, Kanaye-kun and Keiko-san. Group two will be Jun-kun, Kouki-kun, Haruki-kun and Hinata-kun. Group three holds Yusei-kun, Hana-san, Umeko-san and Tenshi-san. Finally, group four will be Akari-san, Michio-kun, Emi-san and I.”

Her little speech was followed by a short moment of silence. It was obvious that no one had any objections at all, simply due to the fact that most of them were happy to get orders and not to do the thinking themselves. Kouki was basically happy to do something, anything, to distract him from their current situation. The group pairing didn’t matter much to him.

Now Chiyo was handing out a paper to one person of every group. Jun got theirs. “This shows which part of the island you will investigate for the next days. Do your best to get a good drawing on everything.”

Their group decided to start their first trip after meeting at 10 a.m. in the entrance hall. So he had some time before heading out for his short talk with Jun. He left Shigeru, who was somewhat addicted to Nozomi today, and walked off with Jun to his room. The other boy had insisted that he needed to grab some of his things before leaving for their investigation.

“So,” Kouki started, when Jun closed the door behind them. “What’s with you and that girl? She seems a bit...crazy.”

“Yeah...” the other boy chuckled.

“I don’t know myself either,” Jun started to explain, “...why I thought dating her a year ago was a good idea. But I can tell you if the whole dating thing was worse, than breaking up with her was terrible. She never got over it and still isn't. Seems my mother had been right after all.”

“Huh?”

“But I think I can handle her. It only bothers me when she starts attacking others.”

“Wow.” Kouki stated. “So you and her were a thing for real?”

“Yes and I regret everything. I don’t even know myself why I let her talk me into it. It took me a few months to finally tell her that I didn’t like her that way. And since then she’s trying to make me take her back. You can tell I was quiet shocked to find out that she had been invited to this island too.”

“Also she hates when other people show me too much attention, as you have experienced yourself,” he continued his explanation.

“So she sees me like a threat?” Kouki said. Jun was simply staring at him and thinking of an appropriate answer: “She sees everyone as a threat, who speaks longer to me than a few minutes. I’m nearly surprised she hasn’t shown up until now seeing we're in my room for quite a time now.”

Kouki giggled as a sudden thought crossed his mind. “Maybe she doesn’t need to.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Maybe she put a video camera in here, so she will see everything you do.”

His smile faded when Jun started to look worried. “Uh. I hope not. I mean I would trust her to do such a thing and actually she already was in my room...”

“Damn it!” he shouted. “Thanks to you I think I won’t be able to sleep in this room again until I have searched every piece of it thoroughly.”

“Maybe you can sleep in my room until that,” Kouki suggested with a wide grin.

“Huh?” The normally poker-faced Jun couldn’t hide his confusion this time. It also didn’t help that Kouki was awfully quiet after his words. He purposely let the awkward silence between them spread for a few minutes longer until it seemed Jun was about to say something himself and Kouki cut him off before he could do so. 

“Aww. I think there’s no camera hidden in here. Otherwise she would have tore down your door and I would have been dead by now-”

He finally saw the realization hit Jun as he himself gained a wide smile. “You’re probably right. That was a nice trick by the way.”

“Thank you.” A glance on his tablet showed him that it was nearly time to meet with the other two. Both grabbed what they wanted to take with them and hurried down to the entrance hall.

While waiting for the others Kouki could see Shigeru and Nozomi walking along the beach. Nozomi looked like she was about to have a panic attack, whereas Shigeru was desperately trying to calm her down. Seemed like he was now the one to comfort others.

“We should go,” Jun said near him. Being ripped out of his thoughts Kouki looked up. While he was concentrated on Shigeru and Nozomi the other two boys of their little group had arrived.

“Yes. Let’s go,” he said.

They went off to their destined section of the island. Jun had taken the lead of their group and no one had objected, so they listened while he explained how they could manage to search the biggest area in the shortest amount of time. The sector they had gotten contained mostly of a mountainous landscape, only disturbed by a few fields and even lesser trees. It was the smallest area but for sure the one which  required the most physical effort. Still standing in the white sand of the beach Jun took some items out of his backpack. The first ones were a notepad and a pencil.

“Someone’s good with this?” he asked.

Kouki nodded. “I did draw a few things back home, so I think I can handle that.”

“Fine!” He was given both of the objects.

Jun got himself a compass before he finally lead them away from the beach and over to the rough part of the island.

The first thing Kouki did was drawing the outline of the whole island. The sheet given to them by Chiyo only had a vague imprint of it. He tried to remember it as clearly as he could from what was still imprinted in his mind from his look out of the helicopter.

When he finished the first task, Kouki started to draw the most important details containing landscape marks or other things, which caught their attention. For every hour they walked he added new lines to the map, all the while being on the watch where he set his feet. The hard and uneven rocks of the small mountains didn’t cause them an easy journey, especially not if your whole attention was focused on the notepad in your hands. So it happened more than once that someone needed to grab Kouki before he fell.

Sometime in the afternoon Jun decided for them to make a short break before slowly heading back on another path. It looked like he had brought some sandwiches and water bottles for all of them. Kouki took both things gratefully not having thought of bringing anything with him before leaving. Hinata fetched his portion and settled next to him on the rocky ground.

“How is the map going so far?” he asked while munching on his sandwich.

Kouki showed him what they had gained so far causing the boy to sigh loudly. “Well seems like we need to go even father tomorrow to investigate the other side of the island. That’s definitely not one of my favorite things to do.”

“So you don’t like sports?” Kouki asked trying to get a conversation with the other boy.

“I don’t like physical activity at all,” Hinata answered. “I prefer sitting and getting my thoughts lost to the vibes of good music.”

“Oh yes.” How could he forget? Hinata was the Ultimate Flute Player, so of course he would have an addiction to music. “Hm. What kind of music do you like?”

“To say so I’m not really focused on one specific type of music, but I definitely prefer loud and fast,” he grinned. “Sounds stupid for a flute player, hm?”

Kouki couldn’t argue with that. He wasn’t even sure if you could play that kind of music on a flute!? But nonetheless Hinata was the Ultimate Flute Player. So if someone could do it than it would be him.

“I think I have my taste of music from my grandmother,” he explained.

“Your grandmother?”

“Yes. She's the Ultimate Musician. I’m sure you have heard of her. She has really famous songs...Mioda Ibuki.”

Oh. Yes he had heard of her. Sure it was not his kind of music but due to her being really all over the news when creating a new song it was impossible to not know her. Also he knew her because of her being a participant of the second killing game... It’s true; Hinata had been one of the students declaring that he had a relative who was forced to participate in a killing game...

“Maybe that's why I’m so famous,” he laughed and interrupted Kouki’s train of thoughts, “I think no one can play the flute like me especially in that fashion. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play other kinds of music. It’s rather helpful to do so if you want to mess with the feelings of your audience.”

“What do you mean?” This statement left Kouki slightly confused, but his question was answered only a few seconds later.

“This means you can put emotions in your play and transmit them to your audience, like if you want them to become sad, or cheerful or even angry.”

“So you say you can manipulate someone’s feeling while playing?” Kouki asked careful not to offend the other boy with his questions.

Hinata didn’t seem to be bothered by his statement. He rather had a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Yes. And I can tell you it’s a great feeling.”

He was not sure what to answer to those words. Luckily Jun decided at this moment that it was time to end their break and go back before it went dark.

It turned out their way back wouldn’t be that easy. After walking for an hour on another path, Jun leading their direction with his compass, they reached a huge gap. It was wide and spread over a long way down on their right, while on their left side the mountain side fell down precipitous. But the gap itself wasn’t too deep after all, maybe around 4 meters.

“Hey let’s climb down!” Haruki shouted excitedly.

“I think it would be better to find a way around,” Jun assumed obviously not wanting to risk anything.

“Oh come on!” Haruki protested. “There’s nothing dangerous about this gap. Even if you jump down it wouldn’t hurt you that bad.”

Kouki wasn’t sure about that part, but seeing the faces of the two boys he decided he would let them work out what to do and follow the outcome.

“And if we search for a better way it will cost us precious time, not to mention that it will be more difficult to continue the map correctly that way.”

Jun looked stressed out and not a slight bit convinced by Haruki’s words. “We don’t need to put ourselves into more danger than we already are.”

“It’s only a small opening. I mean have you seen that huge steep face, where we had our break? That looked beautiful! Definitely a place where I need to do a bit of stress relieve in the next few days.”

If anything Haruki looked happy, while Jun did not. “It’s fine. You’re the Ultimate Climber, but I think it would be better to hold yourself back for the time being. You don’t need to create a perfect scenario for someone to murder you.”

Haruki pouted still staring at the gap.

“Fine!” Jun gave in, but only because they already had wasted too much time. “We go through the gap, but only if you rethink your idea of climbing on that steep face.”

“I will think about it,” was all he got out of Haruki.

“Then do you have any rope to support us will climbing down?” Jun asked his lips pressed together in a thin line. “It would be better to risk nothing with only one Ultimate Climber.”

“Of course I have!” Haruki smiled already searching for the wanted object in his hiking bag. He took out a yellow climbing rope as thick as two of Kouki’s fingers and laid it down on the ground. With a few confident grips he tossed the rope over a near rock and knotted it. The rest of the rope went down the gap. Hinata was the first to go down, then Kouki and last Jun. Haruki loosened the knot and tossed the rope down into the gab before he carefully climbed down without any safety. Kouki had to admit it didn’t look like he would need any at all.

After all of them had been gathered in the gap they reached for the other side were they proceeded the same actions vice versa. When finally everyone was safe on the other side of the gap, Jun began to loosen the rope. It took him way longer than Haruki, also he seemed to have some difficulty with it. Finally he managed to wrap it together and handed it over to Haruki with an apologetic face. He did say something, which made Haruki look angry for a few seconds, but due to Kouki and Hinata having already gone down the path a few meters he couldn’t understand what the two were talking about. When both of the boys catch up with them a moment later none said anything but Haruki still looked angry.

Kouki couldn’t persist his thoughts too long on the two. Probably they had talked again about Haruki wanting to do one of his climbing sessions and Jun trying to convince him not to. Instead he had to concentrate on the map to draw the gap in it as far as Kouki could see it. He also made a short note about its depth.

 

* * *

 

They reached the hotel perfectly in time to gather together for dinner. Thought it was also the first time Kouki actually questioned who was making their dinner.

Breakfast and lunch consisted mostly of bread, fruits and other things, which were stored in the fridge and in boxes on the counter in the kitchen. But the last days someone actually had cooked a dinner. So who was it? Not to mention who filled the fridge and the boxes? It looked like at least one of his questions would be answered this day as he found Chiyo in the kitchen actually making a great amount of noodles and sauce. Suddenly he felt a wave of guilt welling up inside him.

“Oh,” he began. “Can we help you?”

He felt somewhat awkward for simply not noticing that the dinner he ate actually was cooked by someone of their group and he had neither offered help for cooking nor washing the dishes. At breakfast, and if they want lunch, everyone turned out to be responsible for themselves.

The four of them ended up helping Chiyo finish the meal and also promised to help after it with the dishes. They also came to the conclusion that they should make a schedule so everyone was someday responsible for cooking and cleaning.

After everything was cleaned and stored away he left the dining hall only to find a still miserable looking Haruki leaning on the entrance door frame.

“Hey,” he greeted him. “Are you still upset about the things Jun said earlier?”

He only shrugged.

“I don’t want to offend you, but he has a point.”

This made Haruki finally respond. He seemed more sad than angry at his words. “It’s fine. I know Jun has a point but you know climbing is my life and the only thing that can distract me from this hell were in. But no worrying about that anymore.”

“Hm?” Kouki sounded confused about the last sentence but he chose not to dig deeper because Haruki already looked rather down. That was why he decided on another tactic: “So you are really living your talent, do you?”

This forced a smile out of him. “Ah yes I do. That and muffins.” His smiled turned into a quiet giggle. “Something I’m sure I have adopt from my grandma. She’s also an Ultimate and was as obsessed as me with her exercises and self set challenges and... donuts.”

It seemed the two shared an obsession over sport and bakery products. Something related to that came to his mind: “Is that the reason why your twin has ended up as the Ultimate Baker?”

Now Haruki really started to smile, a genuine one, which made is worries wash away for a moment. “Maybe. Since Keiko-san was scouted as the Ultimate Baker grandma considered moving in with us. Our parents weren’t that fond of it but we found a pretty good solution. Now she gets a special box with donuts every week.”

“Your grandmother-?” he finally asked out of curiosity.

“Asahina Aoi. I think you may know her.”

Kouki nodded slowly. Yes he did. But again it was more due to her being a participant in a killing game then her achievements as a swimming pro. Actually she was part of _that_ killing game.

The first one. The one that actually happened to hold the cold and harsh truth that everyone who died in there stayed dead. With their memories messed up, trapped in the school building and forced to kill each other, all of it had been way too real. A despairing game planned and directed by Enoshima Junko herself.

Not that the others had been less cruel. Nonetheless the two killing games after weren’t exactly like the first one. For both of them students from Hopes Peak’s had been kidnapped, their memories being erased and somewhat replaced with fake ones, only to follow the despair path Enoshima Junko had created before. But all of it happened inside a programmed world, inside a simulation. Kouki had heard rumors about the simulation games, even if the participants, culprit or victim, ended up waking up again, they were broken. Broken by an all too real feeling of death in their minds.

The second one had been the first simulation, meant to repair the despair filled minds of a group of remnants of despair. Also the initially idea had been ruined due to a virus plastered into the program starting a new killing game. In the end all of them could be freed from their comatose bounds with the virtual world and brought back to the real one to recover.

For the third one the still remaining remnants had _improved_ the stolen recovery program. Despite happening in a virtual world, it was meant to actually kill. A line had been added to the programming code which should guaranty upon ending the killing game all that had died should stay dead in reality too. But due to the simulation being forced to shut down in the last trial the addiction line never stepped directly into action, causing most of the participants to awake again.

There had been so much destruction in the last decades, destroying the former world Kouki had never seen, since he was born way after the tragedy had happened, crushing all forth coming hope. Even to this day, governments, public facilities, like schools, were nothing more than improvised attempts in regaining what they had lost so many years ago. Somewhere around the time he tuned five the wars and attacks finally were less and less until the world reached the stable and peaceful state it was in today. _Not for us,_ he thought bitter.

While having those swirling thoughts about former killing games and the fate of the world in his head, he ended up thinking what this might mean for them right now. No one of them had gained a memory loss, or had they? Would they even knew? He couldn’t remember any point were his memory may have been a bit dizzy. And wasn’t that the characteristic every time before? A point were something felt off?

Still the stupid bear had told them that this, their, killing game would be quite different from before. But if there was no breaking point, no point where everything went strange does it mean there was no possibility this could be a simulation? One of the last straws he was desperately holding on but shouldn’t get  his hope up too high. What if it was real? 

Thinking about it his mind decided that the whole thing being real was more likely than being stuck in a simulation. And on a second thought a simulation wouldn’t be safe either, they could still die from the shock caused by a simulated death.

Now he felt dizzy from all the overwhelming thoughts and was grateful when Haruki got him away from them. “Your okay? You looked quiet out of it for a few moments.”

“Sorry I was just thinking.”

“About all of this?”

“Yeah...” None of them was rather contend to endure that topic further, so they went for a change. The rest of their free time together was spend with Haruki telling him that one time Keiko did spice both his muffins and his grandmothers donuts to mess with them, because she was angry about them not noticing enough her hard work. Turned out they deserved it somehow. True to Haruki’s words Keiko had stayed a whole night up to make really special tarts and no one had thanked her for it, only wolfing down the work of a whole night in a few minutes.

When Haruki left for his room, Kouki decided for a short walk along the beach, because the view of the sunset enfolded the whole beach in a warm amber tone. He wasn’t the only one still out there. From afar he could see Nozomi and Umeko sitting on the beach and talking to each other. They seemed deep in conversation. They even didn’t notice him when he was walking right behind them.

“...Y-You know maybe someone’s messing with us. I mean this must have a deeper meaning to it, does it? We can’t just shrug it off as a simple coincidence. I’m not sure I can do this. It’s...it’s kind of too obvious and the feeling I have didn’t make it better-”

“I see, but...”

He surly didn’t want to eavesdrop, but while walking right behind them Kouki caught a few sentences that didn’t made sense to him at all. He walked faster, because after all this wasn’t a conversation he was involved in.

When he finally got back to the hotel his environment had turned dark. Nonetheless he saw the small figure leaning on the wall.

“Hi Hana-san. Is everything all right?”

 She only gave him a blank stare or what he assumed was one, because he couldn’t quite see her face properly in the dark.

“Everything is fine,” she said after considering answering for a minute. He didn’t believe her for a second.

“Aren't you tired?” he tried again in starting something that might be a conversation.

“No. I like the night. It’s more peaceful, because normally other people are asleep.”

Yes he did got that hint, but as if to destroy the slightest possibility he could've missed it Hana continued: “Judging from your tired expression you should probably go to bed like _now_.”

He sighed. “I get it! But you should do the same. Even if you're more addicted to the night time, tomorrow will be another investigation day and everyone needs to be at their best for it.”

With a short ‘Good Night’ he left her alone and went straight to his bedroom. There was a message on his tablet from Shigeru.

 **Shigeru** : Hope you had a good day! I tried my best to comfort Nozomi-san today. She was pretty out of it and I had to do a lot of work to manage to calm her down...but I think she will be fine. At least as fine as it is possible... She also seemed irritated by something Umeko said to her? Hopefully it was nothing to worry about! Sorry for bothering you! Good Night

He smiled and fell asleep immediately.


	7. Day 3 - First Trigger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gun was there right on their heads and the trigger about to be pulled. Death was needed to let the killing game begin, only then would they be able to stop it. Destroy it, a task only one of them could fulfill. The sun was starting to rise: killing the night for the beginning of a new morning. Kill the night, kill a participant.
> 
> _You can’t stop something that hasn’t even begun, but when it starts you can... ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came out a bit later than I wanted it to be, because I have another fic I'm writing at the moment, which turned out to be longer than expected and I also started working ;) But I promise this won't be abandoned! 
> 
> I will try to update my fic's at least once a week from now on.

Going to breakfast the next morning turned out to be the wrong decision. Mostly because some time after all of them had started to sit down and eat together in silence the TV suddenly flickered on and the sickening image of Monokuma forced itself upon them. _How better could a morning start?_ , Kouki thought bitterly.

“Good Morning everybody~! Did you miss me, your lovely headmaster~?” the bear greeted them cheerful. “Well, since none of my fellow participants decided to start the killing by now I will give you a special gift! A motive! And this isn’t just any motive! It’s one of the most interesting ones I ever managed to come up with. Sadly it wasn’t used the last time I brought it up, that’s why I decided to revive it just for you!” The bear made a dramatic pause, during which false applause could be heard through the TV speakers. “The last time it had been known as the ‘First Blood Perk’, but this time it will be named ‘Showdown Perk’. The possibility to gain the advantages of the Showdown Perk will stay active for the next 24 hours, just go ahead and kill someone the next day.”

Memories flooded Kouki’s mind. They weren’t too detailed ones but it was enough to understand what Monokuma was speaking about as he did happen to have heard about the First Blood Perk motive before. Still, even if his knowledge about the former motive was rather limited it was enough to bring the sickening feeling back into his stomach.

“You see it’s actual not the exact same motive as before! While the First Blood Perk was meant to save the culprit from going through a class trial in general and let them get away with their murder, the _Showdown Perk_ will actually grand the culprit a gold card straight to our final Killing Showdown. This means they can’t be killed until then, neither as a possible victim nor can they be executed as a culprit of another murder. These advantages will only stop upon reaching the Killing Showdown! So if you want to be destined for the final battle you should hurry up and commit murder."

"There will be a class trial, after all you need to guess the culprit right!" Monokuma went on, still smiling at them. "If you don’t guess right all of you will be executed like I said before. Only the culprit doesn’t have to worry this time, even if you guess them right they won’t be executed! But thinking about possible conflictions in the future I think there's the need to set another rule: One culprit is only allowed to kill an amount of two people. This will provide that whoever ends up being the happy certain survivor don’t decide to just kill every other student. That would be rather boring, don’t you think? You surely have figured out by now this also means whoever gains the rights of the Showdown Perk has a gold card for a free murder too!”

Finally Monokuma’s speech came to an end. “That’s it for today! Have fun killing!” The TV went off, the resulting silence creating a heavy atmosphere in the room, which began to gnaw on Kouki's nerves. Of course he should have seen that coming. Wasn’t it the same in every other killing game? Monokuma giving out his motives, never failing to at least tempt one participant to start the game. He had to admit, recalling former used motives, that this one was rather odd...

After finishing his breakfast he still had some time left before his group would go out again to further improve their map of the island. That’s why he decided to have a little talk with Nozomi first, due to the worrying words from Shigeru yesterday and for the time to pass faster.

“Hi!” Kouki shouted after her, seeing her going in direction of the elevator probably aiming for her room. “How are you feeling today? You got us really worried yesterday.”

“A-Ah fine I think,” she answered him in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry I’m not good at getting myself together and stay calm, e-especially...in a place like this.” She gestured with her hand around.

“You’re right. I can’t even imagine why of all _we_ ended up _here_ ,” Kouki stated. Worry was written all over Nozomi’s face. She showed openly the feelings Kouki tried to hide inside, not with much success though. “Hah! This is more than just bad luck...”

“It’s not like there is someone who would care for us,” Nozomi said nearly to quiet to understand, but he did and it left him confused. He repeated Nozomi’s words in his mind trying to grasp their meaning. Nonetheless he didn’t have to wait long since she immediately explained her former words: “You understand me, do you? We aren’t wanted at all or why else weren’t we good enough for the ones that first brought us into this world? They didn’t want us then and they don’t care what will happen to us today. Nobody will.”

Kouki couldn’t stop the dreadful feeling welling up inside him. Even if he had to admit that some points may be not to wrong it was a rather dark way of thinking about their situation as orphans.

“That’s not true!” he shouted at her with more force than intended. He didn’t know how to respond properly to Nozomi’s heavy words, especially after seeing how the topic darkened the light in her eyes, leaving them lifeless to the point Kouki couldn’t look at her directly anymore. Even if their parents didn’t care for them, and yes in that point he had the same opinion as Nozomi, he still knew that in the end there still were people who cared.

“Don’t think like that!” he told her, trying everything to get that crushing look out of her face. “Even if they hadn’t given a second thought about us, there are other ones who we mean a lot to! For example our guardians care for us and so do our friends from the orphanage and school!”

He could finally see some light return in her eyes and her tense expression softened. “I-I know that. It’s just...” She struggled with finding the right words to express her feelings but had to admit defeat. “...so frustrating.”

“...” It really was frustrating thinking about what could have been if they hadn’t been abandoned after their birth, that’s why he stopped doing it some years ago. At least most of the time.

“It’s not fair,” her voice had gone quieter again but was still strained with pain. “Why did _they_ make me feel like this? Why do I l _ong_ for them so much? Even if I _knew_ my parents hate me and give a shit about what happens to me, all I can think of is how much I want to meet them. How much I would like to get to know them. I-I want to ask them why, but they didn’t need to give me an answer. I want to look at them but they didn’t have to look back... I just want them so deeply...”

All Kouki could think of, was that parts of Nozomi’s speech were definitely lies and bad ones too. He was pretty sure meeting her parents in reality and got rejected by them for a second time would finally break her, shattering her heart into pieces. Her words proved that, since he could hear the _desire_ mixed with _pain_ in her voice.

There was nothing he could do to comfort her concerning her longing for her parents, all that was left for him to do was spend time with Nozomi whenever she needed it. And this thought was what he told her; that she could count on Shigeru and him and shouldn’t hesitate to speak with one of them whenever her mood turned out to much for her to handle alone.

He was happy that after reassuring her that she wasn’t alone a small smile had found its way in her face again. Kouki gave her a short hug and finally let her leave to her room, while he hurried outside to met with his group for another couple of hours of exploring the island.

The whole noon and afternoon went by in a heartbeat. Due to Jun’s organization talent, they would be able to finish the map of their area in another two days, what was quiet awesome. During their trip he tried to start a few conversations but only Hinata seemed to be open for chat today. While Jun dodged every attempt to speak about the motive given to them by Monokuma and broke up every conversation longer than five minutes, Haruki on the other hand seemed so lost in his own mind, that he didn’t even recognized it when Kouki was trying to talk to him.

After another fruitless attempt he finally decided to stay quiet himself and instead focus more on drawing an accurate imprint of the islands terrain. Near sunset they headed back to the hotel. Consistent to their behavior over the day the boys went their own ways immediately after reaching the hotel entrance wishing the others only a short ‘See you’.

Actually Kouki didn’t feel like hiding in his room or going to sleep early, nor did he want to have some dinner right now. So he decided to stay outside and approach the figure who was kneeling beside the hotel where the sand of the beach turned over in a more grassy and dirt ground. Upon reaching the figure he found out that it was Tenshi who was about to build a small garden. Obviously she had found some plants during their group exploration and brought them back with her.

“That looks nice. Did you bring them with you today?” he asked the digging girl.

“Oh yes!” she beamed, still focused on her work and not on him. “It will be a present for Atua and my sister! But it also calms me down a little.”

“Hm. Your sister... she was forced to participate in the third killing game, right?” he asked careful.

“Yes.” A shadow clouded her eyes for a moment. It was only visible for a second, tempting Kouki to think he might have imagined it. But he hadn’t. “And she never woke up from it again.”

Tenshi’s voice was calm and quiet. Yet her gaze was fixated on the plant before her. To tell the truth Kouki hadn’t even thought about it. He knew that due to the special programming of the simulation of the third killing game all culprits and victims were destined to die. Only the unexpected shutdown and therefore the disrupted program gave them the possibility to wake up again. Still not all of them woke up again. But he hadn’t bothered to know who. _Idiot!_ _I should have been more careful._

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright.” It wasn’t. He could see that much. But it didn’t look like her anger was truly guided towards him, rather than the ones who created the horrible game. “She’s now part of Atua and both of them are watching over us.”

He decided on a simple nod not wanting to cause a religious discussion then and there, especially because it was his fault she had to remember her sister’s death. Kouki desperately tried to change the topic after that without it looking weird. His gaze fell back on the plants; they had big dark green leaves surrounding stalks coming out of the remaining dirt around the roots. On top of the stalks were hemispheres of blossoms, each one build of a bunch of little petals. Tenshi had picked different colors of the plants; he could see white ones, magenta colored ones and also some in a dark shade of bluish-purple. Also it wasn’t the only plant she had brought back with her. Next to them were some bundles of plants with a different leave shape and without any hint of a blossom.

“What are those?” he asked curios, trying to get Tenshi’s attention back to her garden and therefore her Ultimate Talent.

“The ones with the blossoms are hortensia and the other ones are funkie.” He didn’t miss that she tried on an easy language so he would be able to understand which one was which. Kouki was sure she could have chosen words, which would have left him in the dark even though getting a detailed explanation. “They were easy to take with me. Also they are pretty uncomplicated when transplanting them to another spot like that. And I thought if nothing else there should be a happy spot to go to in the morning, one shiny place on that dreary island.”

That was when he decided to stay with her until she had finished building her little garden. Being not of much help, he only acted as an errand boy for her, so she didn’t need to stand up and sit down again and again if something was out of her reach. When Tenshi finished her work, he had to admit she had done quiet some good work in arranging the plants and creating a beautiful place with limited resources, only using plants and stones.

Kouki looked at the garden before him. If he only focused on that spot he could imagine himself standing in a park. Immediately he missed a bench. It would be rather peaceful to sit there between the plants and flowers and dwell on his thoughts...if they only could have been happier.

Finally both of them returned to the hotel, ate some of the dinner leftover together and after that head back to their personal rooms to go to sleep.

 

* * *

 

A thin shadow showed their head up to the lovely night sky above them. The moon was nearly full and illumined the outlines of every disruption of the otherwise smooth landscape. But like the things to come all their beautiful details were hidden by pitch-black shadows. Stars were shining, blinking, and mocking the shadow.

_Why does it have to be this way?_

Because it is necessary. No killing game had gone without killing so far. And this one wouldn’t be an exception... After all...they had made their decision from the beginning.

_Why did they consider this a good idea?_

The gun was there right on their heads and the trigger about to be pulled. Death was needed to let the killing game begin, only then would they be able to stop it. Destroy it, a task only one of them could fulfill. The sun was starting to rise: killing the night for the beginning of a new morning. Kill the night, kill a participant.

_You can’t stop something that hasn’t even begun, but when it starts you can..._


	8. Day 4 - Heavy Breaths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon reaching the dining hall and grabbing something to eat an odd feeling began to grow in his stomach, but not really wanting to know what the meaning behind it was he ignored it. Even as it turned 8:30 a.m. and nearly everyone had already finished their meal he didn’t try to dwell on the particular feeling. Only when Chiyo rose from her seat, giving them a short once-over before starting to speak, he let himself finally feel the fear, which had boiled up inside him.
> 
>  _We’re only fifteen. Someone is missing...No_ he _is missing._

Having actually slept rather early Kouki woke up some time before the morning announcement even played. Therefore he took his time getting out of bed, showering until his skin got wrinkled and finally dressed himself in time to go get breakfast. His thoughts drifted to what the day ahead of him would bring. Hopefully Jun and Haruki wouldn’t act all distant like yesterday and stay isolated from him any longer, because this was something he wasn’t fond of, especially because it meant he was left alone in his own mind with no distraction at all. This would make his day rather dreary since his current thoughts were nothing he wanted to be left alone with right now. No wonder, because they all circled around their current situation and the of course the killing game itself. Due to this he was grateful for anything he could do to avoid being too long on his own.

Upon reaching the dining hall and grabbing something to eat an odd feeling began to grow in his stomach, but not really wanting to know what the meaning behind it was he ignored it. Even as it turned 8:30 a.m. and nearly everyone had already finished their meal he didn’t try to dwell on the particular feeling. Only when Chiyo rose from her seat, giving them a short once-over before starting to speak, he let himself finally feel the fear, which had boiled up inside him.

 _We’re only fifteen. Someone is missing...No_ he _is missing._

“Did someone see Haruki-kun this morning?”

He felt a tight grip around his lungs when all he heard were quite mutters of the simple but cruel word; ‘No’. Surprisingly it was Keiko who spoke up first: “He told me yesterday that he wanted to go exercise in the morning but...” She paused trying to get her voice back up to speak again. “...He promised to be back for breakfast.”

“What do you mean by exercise?” Jun’s expression was blank except for a hint of worry in his eyes. “ _Climbing_?”

 _Oh_. Kouki suddenly remembered the discussion between the two boys about Haruki’s desperate wish to climb to get his thought away from the killing game. But hadn’t he relented after their way through the gap?

“I-I don’t know.” Tears were appearing in her eyes, probably because of her fear something bad had happened to her brother and maybe due to Jun’s harsh voice. “He... He only wrote me a m-message and I didn’t... I didn’t ask.” She looked completely broken, after all her twin was missing in a killing game.

Kouki was slightly surprised when Tenshi leaned over and pulled Keiko into a hug to comfort the crying girl. But his focus was on Jun for now. “He mentioned that steep face we came across during our exploration,” he told them. “Maybe he is there?” _...alive?_ A short word his mind added to mock him even further and made his stomach rebel.

“That’s a good idea,” Jun approved. “I think we should go check it out, but it would be for the best if we split up in smaller groups to check around the hotel as well.”

It turned out Jun, Hinata, Chiyo and him would go to the steep face. Having the worst thoughts already crossing their minds all four of them ran over to the desired area, not caring to watch out for their steps.

It was only when he could see the smooth surface of the rock rising up ahead of them that the nausea feeling from before started to creep back. It was not until his eyes found something loose and bright in color against the cold grey stone that his path slowed markedly down.

And it was then when he saw the motionless body of Haruki laying face down in a pool of his own blood. Immediately pictures of the staff room and the women came back to his mind, simultaneously accompanied by a phantom smell lingering in his nose, forcing him to throw up. He had never felt more ashamed, despite his reaction being justified by the mere horror show they were in. It took him some time to regain and get his attention back to the corpse... _to Haruki_.

There was no TV out on the island, but the voice, the same they had heard while arriving on the island and definitely the one of Monokuma, came suddenly down on them from all sides.

“A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the class trial will begin. Have fun investigating! Upupu~” 

They all stood still, frozen in shock, as if someone would dare to move, what they saw will become reality.

 

// **Investigation Start** //

 

To no one’s surprise Jun and Chiyo were the first ones to approach the body, looking way to casual doing so, while Hinata and him stayed behind. Kouki’s tablet gave a short sound and he forced it out of his pocket only to a notification from the group chat. Of course all of them had heard Monokuma’s announcement.

 **Yusei** : Is it Haruki-kun?

 **Umeko** : Who found them?

 **Akari** : Where-?

Since no one of the other three gave any attention to the chat he decided to answer, after all it would be cruel to let them in the dark.

 **Kouki** : We found him... Haruki-kun. By the steep face.

After getting a few reactions to his words he decided to write down a short description how they could get there, mostly because none of them had been in this area before.

 **Umeko** : Someone should stay behind with Keiko-san. I think she’s in her room, but I’m sure she knows by now.

 **Tenshi** : I will do it. I’m already on my way to her room!

He packed away the tablet the same moment the voice from before erupted again: “Ah! I’m sooo sorry I totally missed to tell you that I uploaded a file on your tablet: The _Monokuma File_ , which will have some facts concerning the body state.”

So he fetched the tablet back from his pocket. That was when he noticed that both of the former empty lines had been filled by now; one reading ‘Monokuma File’ and the other ‘Clue’s (Truth Bullets)’.

He opened the Monokuma File: ‘ _Monokuma File#1:_ (A sad reminder of probably more to come) _The victim is Sootoka Haruki the Ultimate Climber. Time of death was in the early morning hours around 5 a.m.. Cause of death was an immense blood loss due to most of his organs being burst open by an intense impact with a smooth and solid surface. Other wounds than that were a few scratches covering his body, mostly located on his hands and wrists.’_  

There was also a drawing of Haruki’s body, showing where exactly the impact had his organs crushed and burst open. Kouki closed the file immediately after laying eye on the picture and forced his gaze back to what Jun and Chiyo were doing. He didn’t want to, but he urged his numb body to move over to them and... Haruki.

Jun’s calm hand lingered a moment on the body before he turned him over. All Kouki could do was trying not to vomit again and hold back the tears teasing him at the edge of his eyes. There was only ting to describe the mess that was Haruki’s front side: horrible. The hard ground hadn’t let anything stay like it was meant to. His reaction came immediately; Kouki needed to look away. While he turned his eyes to the side he caught sight of the yellow climbing rope Haruki liked to use. The end facing him looked unravelled and torn apart. To prove his observation he looked up at the steep face. Way above them, bound to the grey rock hung a brief part of the same climbing rope. It was wiggling in the warm spring breeze. _Was this done with purpose?_ It had to be, had it? If not, if it only was an accidence, there would’ve been no need of a class trial. _Or would Haruki then be the culprit himself?_

His gaze fell back to the rope on the ground. _Why didn’t he see it? Didn’t he check his materials before using them?_

“Looks like he was immediately dead when he hit the ground,” Jun said slowly but surprisingly confident. “That means he nearly finished to climb up the steep face.”

Kouki looked up again to what was left of the climbing rope. Indeed it was nearly fixated at the top of the mountain. The metal loop in the solid rock on which the rope was fixated wasn’t more than a few meters away from the top. Sure to it he could also see other metal loops brought in the wall to support Haruki’s climb leading up there.

But didn’t that mean whatever happened to his rope happened near the top and not before his climb? It seemed he wasn’t the only one having these thoughts, because Jun was already looking at the steep face searching for something.

“I think we should check if there’s an easier way to the top,” he said. “Kouki-kun do you remember anything?”

He thought hard about Jun request, checking over the terrain they had seen that day. “Hmm. We went back from this point on, so we didn’t check the other side of the steep face,” Kouki began speaking out what was crossing his mind. “But we walked for a short while around it to take another path back to the hotel. I think I saw a more flat side of the mountain, it should’ve been actually flat enough that there could be a walkable path without the use of climbing gear.”

“You could be right. I think we should go checking it out,” Jun remarked. “Will you escort me Kouki-kun?”

He nodded. To tell the truth he would use every chance given to him to go away from Haruki’s corpse.

“I will stay,” Chiyo explained. “Someone should wait for the others to arrive and to answer their questions. Someone that isn’t to frozen to even breathe.” She gave a short glance over to Hinata, who indeed hadn’t moved a single centimeter nor said anything since they had found the climber. It was sure for the best to not leave him all by himself.

Without another word Jun started to walk away and Kouki hurried to catch up with him. They choose on a moderate pace to get as quick as possible to their destination but with some strength left. Finding the spot Kouki had mentioned they undeniably found a path to go up to the mountain top for someone who wasn’t the Ultimate Climber.

Even if they took their time, Kouki slower than Jun, they finally made it to the top, exhausted but successful. While standing on the top they could see that all of the others students had arrived by now. Even from afar he could see that some were in a really bad shape. Only two of them were missing: Tenshi and Keiko, since Tenshi was looking after the probably broken down Keiko.

“Seems it was a good idea to check that place,” Jun said pointing at the ground near the place where they could see Haruki’s rope fixated in the rock around 3 meters under the plateau they were standing on. True to his words and judging from the traces left in the ground, in the grass and even in visible in broken strains of bushes definitely told them that someone had been here not long ago.

A silver glint next to one of Jun’s shoes caught his eye and he sat down inspecting the dubious ground. What he found after removing some of the dirt was a rather simple object, simple but very compromising. A knife. A small pocket knife to be exact.  After a painful moment of silence Jun took it out of his hand and looked at it with a surveying expression in his eyes.

“Do you think someone had cut across Haruki-kun's rope with it?”

“It would make sense, wouldn’t it?” the other boy answered. “We should go back. I don’t think we will find anything more here.”

They made their descent in silence. Both boys lost in their thoughts but still careful where they put their feet to not lose their balance and lay back the rest of the way a bit too fast and with unnecessary bruises and scratches.

When they finally got back to the rest of the students, they were greeted with questions. While he was suddenly the one answering them he could see Jun examine Haruki’s hiking bag, the one he had always by his side. According to Jun’s unsatisfied expression and that he came back with empty hands, he hadn’t found another hint. Nonetheless he swung the bag over his shoulders and took it with him. Kouki felt a light tuck on his shirt as Jun walked next to him. “I think we should check his room too before this stupid bears decides it is time for the class trial. Do you want to come with me?”

He felt a warm feeling rising up inside him surprised that Jun obviously wanted to investigate with him and even better seemed to trust him.

“Yes.” He was fast with his answer and a few moments later he was back at the hotel with only Jun by his side.

“How do we get in?” Kouki asked and went after Jun in the waiting space of the elevator. “His room will be locked.”

This suggestion didn’t caught Jun off guard at all. Instead he reached slowly in his pocket and brought out two room key’s. He fingered for the one unmistakably labelled with Sootoka Haruki, while he hurried to let the other one disappear back into his pocket. Kouki hesitated due to the sight in front of him. Had the other one been Jun’s? But it definitely hadn’t looked like the name Takahashi was written on it, he hadn’t really seen any letters, but he had surely recognized that the name written on the tag was way too short to be Jun’s last name. He debated with himself to confront the other boy but finally decided against it...at least for the moment. They had more important issues.

“I think this won’t be a problem,” Jun said. The other boy’s words pulled him out of his suspicious thoughts and he directed his concentration back to reality. “It was in his hiking bag.”

It turned out Haruki’s room was the one with the number 207. It had the exact same layout as Kouki’s, only mirrored, the window facing the island and not the beach.

“How are you doing?” Jun questioned after he closed the door behind them. “You look very pale.”

“Fine would be a lie but-,” he began, “But I can stand it...for the moment.” A short laugh escaped his throat. “I mean it’s not that I have much of a choice.”

He couldn’t stand the look of pity in Jun’s eyes instead he chooses to examine Haruki’s room. There wasn’t a big difference to his, no real sign of personal things, what wasn’t really a surprise considering their situation. Nobody would’ve thought that they needed something other than a few things and some clothes for the time of the festival.

Only one special thing caught his eye. It was a huge basket of every tart and biscuits his mind could think of. A wave of pain hit him. Obviously Keiko must’ve shut herself down in the kitchen to make this wonderful compilation for her brother. Despite the agony and pain he was feeling, there was no way he could even understand a single second what this meant for Keiko. To lose your twin brother... He wanted to help and comfort her, but had no idea how to do so. After all they weren’t that close, merely strangers only a few days ago.

While he was starring completely lost at the compilation of bakery, a brief flash of movement tapped the corner of his eye. Did Jun find something? But when he turned his head to look at the older boy there was no hint that anything had happened at all. Jun was still focused on searching the room. After a while he gave up.

“I think there’s nothing to be found in this room.”

The TV display sprung to live and a mechanical sound echoed over the whole island: “...”


	9. Day 5 - Showdown Perk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So then what do you think happened?” Kanaye asked, “It seemed to me he got a bit overexcited and did something dangerous. He probably caused all of it by himself while not being careful enough.”
> 
> “But wouldn’t that mean,” Nozomi asked with an uncertain undertone, “that there’s no culprit at all? I mean if it is Haruki’s own fault...”
> 
> “He’s the FUCKING ULTIMATE CLIMBER, YOU-!” They were stunned to statuaries by Keiko’s rising voice. Painful tears were streaming down her face. “HOW DARE YOU all...”

“Alrighty guys, it’s finally time! It’s time for the long awaited class trial! Now then, I shall tell all of you the meeting place! Please gather in the computer lab next to the dining hall. I’ll explain what you have to do from that point on when you’re all there! I’ll see you soon!”

And just with that the bear was gone again.

“The computer lab?” Kouki repeated irritated. True to it he hadn’t even thought about the other rooms in the hotel besides his room and the dining hall. “There’s a computer lab?”

“Yes-?” Jun sounded confused. “Didn’t you examine the hotel? That was the first thing I did after arriving here. Even before...all of this happened.”

Now he felt even more ashamed of himself. “No I...I had only been in my room and the dining hall and...the staff room until now.” He didn’t dare to look in the other boy’s eyes fearing to see the confirmation that Jun now probably thought of him as an idiot.

Jun sighed and opened the room door for them. “We should probably go. I don’t know how far the others are away, but I can guess we shouldn’t let Monokuma wait.”

“Sure.”

They hurried over to the elevator and down to the entrance lobby. It appeared that the door to the computer lab was next to the entrance doors. He had been really ignorant to not even consider investigation his new environment after being trapped there. The only excuse Kouki could come up with was that he had been petrified by the happenings and events following short after another since their arrival and therefore the simplest of things had been dropped out of his mind. An issue he surely needed to take care of in future, since there were still two more rooms and a beach house he hadn’t seen at all.

The computer lab proved to be a small room containing sixteen desks with computers on it, while the front wall of the room was covered with a really big white screen.

“I tried to lock in on one computer,” Jun told him, “but it refused to turn on. Obviously Monokuma is controlling them.”

That wouldn’t be really a surprise if true, Kouki thought. Other than the two boy’s seven students were already in the room, sitting on different desks distributed all over the room. He could spot Keiko, who was sitting stiff in her chair, red eyes staring with a dead look on the display in front of her.

A movement from Jun turned his attention back to him. The other boy pointed towards something metallic on the surface of the desks.

“They’re labelled,” he explained. “You should go and find yours.”

Kouki turned away with a nod and strolled through the room to find his desk. It was behind Shigeru’s on the left side. He sat down taking in the faint shimmer of the display before him, showing that it indeed had power but wasn’t running yet.

Shigeru turned around to give him a brief sad smile, but seemed too agitated to say anything. So they sat in silence until finally every _remaining_ student had sat down on his personal desk. When the last one, namely Yusei, sat down the display sprung on and made him flinch. The bear was back.

“Upupu~, finally everyone is here! Do not worry I won’t let you wait any longer. We will immediately start the fun! There are helmets under your desks, all you have to do is grab yours and set it on your beautiful head. It will connect to the computer program the moment it is bound to you and we will all meet again at the trial grounds!”

And with that the bear was gone. Good for him he never made a bet that their situation couldn’t get any weirder.

Seeing that none of the others was in the mood nor had the strength left to question the commandos given he decided to simply obey. He searched under his desk until his fingers grasped around a smooth and cold object.

Kouki pulled the helmet out from under the desk. It was a deep black, shimmering in the dim light of the room. A bunch of cables were coming out of it vanishing under the surface of the desk. Thinking that this was the dumbest thing to do he placed the helmet over his head and in the second it captured him entirely everything went black.

 

// **First Class Trial Start** //

 

When he opened his eyes again he was standing behind a wooden podium. And so were the others, only one had been left abandoned.... Tears tried to creep back into his eyes when he saw the greyish picture of Haruki defaced with a cross, the colour of the cross way too similar to the pink of blood.

A voice from behind him made him flip around only too reveal Monokuma, all there in flesh and blood (or cotton?) sitting on a throne on a stage above them all.

“Now then let’s begin with a simple explanation of the class trial!” the bear shouted at them, a wide grin plastered in his face showing his sharp teeth. “During the class trial all of you must bring out their arguments for who the killer is and finally vote for ‘whodunnit’.”

“Ah. I totally forgot! I’m so sorry,” the black and white bear interrupted his own speech, “I toootally forgot to ad a super important rule~! So the **new rule** is: Every participant had to vote for a blackened at the end of the trial!”

“So after that is cleared...back to business,” Monokuma said with an exited undertone in his voice, “If you vote correctly, then only the blackened will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong person... I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will earn the right to leave this island!”

“Ah! Of course, this would be the case if it would actually matter! Hah!” the bear again interrupted himself. “But not this time, no! Because of our lovely Showdown Perk there will be no such a thing as a punishment, at least for the blackened.” By saying these words Monokuma really looked like he was about to start crying. “But fiiine~. I will make it up to you the next time, I promise! And then you will be all able to enjoy the most despair-inducing execution you have ever seen! Until then, let us see this special class trial like some kind of exercise!”

The bear raised one of his arms in the air. “Now let’s begin!”

“And how are we supposed to begin?” Hinata growled.

Jun sighed. He looked exhausted, but still wary. “I think we can skip the alibis.”

“And why exactly do you think we can skip speaking about what we have done at the time of Haruki’s death!?” Umeko wanted to know.

“Because,” Jun began in a soft and calm voice, “The time of his death. He died in the early morning hours. So is there anyone here whose alibi wouldn’t be: ‘I was asleep in my room?’”

He was met with more than one frustrated face, while some looked like they were about to start an unnecessary discussion over the topic. That was when Kouki decided to speak up: “Maybe it would be better to determine first the course of his... murder.”

“He’s right,” Shigeru showed his support to his suggestion.

“So then what do _you_ think happened?” Kanaye asked, “It seemed to me he got a bit overexcited and did something dangerous. He probably caused all of it by himself while not being careful enough.”

“But wouldn’t that mean,” Nozomi asked with an uncertain undertone, “that there’s no culprit at all? I mean if it is Haruki’s own fault.”

“He’s the FUCKING ULTIMATE CLIMBER, YOU-!” They were stunned to statuaries by Keiko’s rising voice. Painful tears were streaming down her face. “HOW DARE YOU all...”

The rest of what she wanted to say fainted with her suddenly cracking voice, leaving her sobbing loudly, a pain strained sound that shook him to his core.

“Keiko-san...” he said not knowing how to go on from there. But there was no need to waste a second thought on it since she didn’t even hear him at all. She broke down on her podium, face buried in her arms.

“But,” Jun tried to get the attention back from her to him, “She’s right. Haruki-kun is...was the Ultimate Climber. I’m pretty sure he knew exactly what he did.”

“So can we now speak about the cut across climbing rope?” Yusei encouraged with a voice missing any hint of emotion.

“So you think someone cut his rope while he was still on his way to the mountain top?” Chiyo asked.

“By the way where did you find that knife?” she went on turning to Jun. “You found one, did you not? I saw it when you and Kouki-kun came back after searching for a way up to the mountain top without climbing skills.”

“Exactly there,” Jun answered. “There’s a more flat path up to the mountain top some way around. Kouki-kun and I explored it. It needs some physical strength but I think everyone here should be capable of using this way up to the top.”

Kouki nodded. “Yeah...and the knife was buried near the edge under a handful of dirt.”

“So it isn’t unlikely that it happened that way,” Chiyo said. “Someone of us took the knife, probably from the kitchen, and attained the top of the mountain by going on the path Jun-kun and Kouki-kun just found. On the top they waited for Haruki to finally come to the edge and cut the rope sending their victim back to the ground and his death.”

There was a silence between the students that created quite an awkward feeling.

“Hm,” Kouki spoke into the silence when he no longer could stand it. “There had to be something else... See, when we were at the top we had a great overview over the whole place. I would assess that the last anchor Haruki attached to the rock was beyond two metres for sure, more like two and a half or even three. But sure not near enough for someone cutting the rope while sitting on the edge.”

“So what you want to say is,” Umeko started. ”That the culprit was in need of an aid?”

Nozomi rocked back and forth: “M-Maybe he had a rope himself? W-Which he could have fastened around something and let himself down to Haruki...”

It was the obvious way to go. Despite it sounding totally convincingly some part of it felt strange to Kouki. His mind was searching for something the rope could have been tied to on the mountain top. But he didn’t remember any marks on the few possible things he came up with. _But they should be there._

“Maybe they even used a climbing rope from Haruki,” Akari took action.

“So did he have only one climbing rope or more-? Maybe the culprit could have taken another one from Haruki’s room and used it to reach him,” Kayane suggested.

“...”

“What if we vote wrong?” Jun asked suddenly rising his gaze up to Monokuma. “You said this is only an exercise for us, so-?”

“Well...of course it is and if you vote wrong the Showdown Perk will be gone to waste, buuut being this an exercise only count obviously for the Blackened! I mean wrong is wrong after all. I can’t back out now! I need to punish you all then except for the culprit.”

Jun shifted his face away from the bear, an agonized expression visible for few seconds.

He sighed heavily before finally speaking again to the other participants: “He had a second one. I found it in his hiking bag. A lilac coloured one.”

“Why-?” Kouki asked. _-didn’t you tell me earlier?_

“I think he used it for reaching as far as he did at the steep face and then changed it for the yellow one...”

_What!?_

“There was also a letter in his room, which will pretty much explain everything.” He had turned his face to the side facing the floor. Hurt shown evidently in his eyes.

“Boooring!” as if on cue, Monokuma intervened. “That’s no fun! How will you exercise and prepare yourselves for the next trial if this stupid student here decides to simply tell you all what happened. No, no! You’re muted until the vote!”

True to the words of the black and white bear, when Jun tried to speak up again not a single sound came out of his mouth.

After a short moment of shocked silence Chiyo noted: “So now it’s on us.”

“Then let us start again from the beginning about how Haruki was killed, deciding for every part if it’s true or not,” Yusei told them.

“But it’s allowed for Jun-kun to nod or shake his head, is it not?” Akari asked.

“If you really want that advantage, fiiine,” Monokuma gave in.

“Okay so it’s determined that Haruki-kun left in the morning to do a bit of climbing and he obviously had the yellow as well as the lilac rope in his hiking back.” Chiyo looked over to the muted boy waiting for a reaction to her statement. Jun reciprocated her gaze and simply nodded.

Kanaye took on from there making the next statement. “Obviously the culprit followed him to the steep face, the knife ready in his pocket.” This earned a shake from Jun.

“Huh?” Not only Hinata was confused with that answer.

“Then...he didn’t follow him immediately-?” Yusei tried to get Kanaye’s statement right, but Jun just stared at him. The glint in his eyes gave Kouki finally the courage to enter the conversation again, trying to get some of his own observations and suspicions confirmed.

“...Haruki-kun had the knife?”

Jun looked back to him a hopeful smile in his face and nodded.

“Why should he have the knife?” Michio wanted to know, despite Jun having already approved Kouki’s assumption the other boy didn’t seem to believe it. But he wasn’t alone with his opinion. Even Shigeru doubted it. “That doesn’t make any sense at all. Why should he have the knife to begin with?”

Interestingly Yusei had caught up to their thoughts coming up with his own assumptions. “Because it wasn’t used for cutting the rope. It was only there to distract us.”

“How can you say that?” Umeko questioned curios, getting her answer immediately from Yusei: “The cut wasn’t nearly smooth enough to be done with a knife. It looked more like someone had rubbed it several times over...maybe a sharp rock edge?” Kouki must admit Yusei really had a remarkable memory considering how short he even examined the crime scene, yet making understandable conclusions.

But instead of praising him for his contribution Hinata asked irritated: “So you knew that from the beginning?” To which Yusei only shrugged.

“Let’s proceed further on,” Emi remarked, reminding them that they were going off topic. “So it’s obvious Haruki-kun had stocked everything in his hiking bag and reached the steep face in the morning, but what happened next?”

Again Kouki thought over all the clues Jun and he had gathered trying to piece them together in a way that would make sense. But considering what they had determined so far and what Jun had told them before being muted by Monokuma lead him to some confusing conclusions.

“He used the lilac rope to climb to the top,” he began speaking out loud what was crossing his mind.

“How did you know?” Nozomi asked him.

Kouki’s answer to her doubt was simple: “That’s what Jun-san said. But from that point on-? All I can say is that I didn’t see any marks indicating that a rope was tied around anything at the mountain top.”

“How did the knife get under the dirt then-?” Emi wondered aloud.

”Maybe Haruki-kun went to the mountain top on the path we found and hid it there?” Hinata suspected but Jun was shaking his head energetically at that.

That was when a voice spoke up Kouki didn’t think he would hear again during the trial at all. “H-He climbed the last metres to the t-top without any aid,” Keiko said, her voice small and hollow. “He d-did that more than o-once before.”

“So he untied the lilac rope, stored it in his bag, climbed the rest up to the top and buried the knife in the dirt,” Chiyo summed up what they had acknowledged so far. Jun nodded to her listing. “Then he went back to his last anchor and tied the yellow rope at it, which was cut across beforehand...”

Kouki smothered the nausea rising inside him and said in a thin voice: “H-He proceeded to go down the steep face with the damaged yellow rope from there on until the fibers finally tore apart, making him fall...to his d-death.”

Jun just gave them a short nod.

 “So he damaged the rope himself!? But does that mean it was suicide?” Umeko asked stunned, while Jun was shaking his head.

“H-He would h-have _never ever_ end h-his life for n-nothing!” Keiko shouted angrily through her sobs.

“But why did he want to distract us and make the trial more difficult?” Shigeru wanted to know, “...let it look like there was a murderer?”

“Because there was one,” Yusei suddenly interrupted. Kouki had to admit these were the same thoughts as going through his own mind.

“I can only guess...but I think it was more to signal us that it wasn’t meant to be a suicide,” Kouki said slowly to which Jun again nodded.

“So there _is_ a culprit-?” Nozomi asked, getting a nod too as response. By now Jun looked rather satisfied with what they had reached so far.

“But-?” Hinata sighed trying to follow the course of events.

“And there is still that thing with the letter,” Kanaye reminded them, ignoring Hinata’s doubts.

Kouki stilled by the mentioning of the letter Jun had told them of earlier. While the other boy was looking over to him, the last pieces finally fall into place in his head, reaching a result he wasn’t happy with. At least finding the truth this time wouldn’t mean another death and instead prevent all of them from dying when guessing wrong. Kouki raised his head to meet with the lilac eyes from Jun.

“...”

Jun proceeded to stare at him completely focused on Kouki’s face as if he wanted to tell the other boy something important. Kouki of course knew by now what it was that Jun had wanted to tell them from the beginning. He just needed to speak it out loud for him, because the other boy couldn’t.

“...”

There was no point hesitating anymore.

“There was no need for Haruki-kun in cutting the rope himself. It had already been damaged some time before when...when Jun-san tried to convince him not to go climbing on his own...”

He inhaled sharply and faced the other boy again.

“ _You_ did damage it to prevent him from climbing, did you not? That was why he was so mad at you at that time...”

Jun smiled sadly and nodded.

“Y-YOU-” Keiko started but stopped when Kouki spoke up again: “...and Haruki-kun used this to his advantage to force the Showdown Perk on you. He wanted to make sure you survive until the end.”

A simple nod came from the other boy but this time it changed everything.

“It looks like your argument has come to a close. Let’s move along to the nerve-wrecking voting time! Now please look at the buttons on your podium. There’s a picture of every one of you! Now then, all you need to do is press the right button in front of you and cast your vote! Oh, just a reminder...make double suuure you vote for someone! Not that someone already forgot about our new rule! If you don’t vote...let me just say I will have something to enjoy after all!” Monokuma made himself noticeable from his place behind Kouki. “...Who will be chosen as the blackened!? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!? Upupu, such heart-pounding excitement!”

Kouki found his finger hovering over his friends button and when finally pressing down he felt sick. Luckily because of the motive given to them there was no harm awaiting Jun. He asked himself if he could have pressed the button at all if it meant to doom the other boy to death.

 

// **First Class Trial End** //

 

**_Naegi Jun has been found guilty..._ **

“Correct! That’s right! This time the blackened responsible for the death of Sootoka Haruki is Naegi Jun! ”

 _What the hell!? Naegi!?_ Kouki head was spinning but more than acknowledging the change of names was out of his possibilities at the moment. He was in a complete mess after all that had happened prior and it didn’t help that the damned bear showed them Haruki’s letter, in which the poor boy explained his motivation planning all of the following events to make sure Jun would stay by their side until the end. He seemed to have an extreme fate in the boy to lead the killing game to an end stained with hope and not despair, while he in the same time acknowledged he didn’t believe himself of much use. His low self-esteem leading to his death.

Kouki didn’t know what to think of this decision. Why giving away his own live for someone else especially if they in reality should have been focused on sticking together and not starting the killing game at all? Maybe it was because of his background that Haruki had a complete different relation then him to what it meant to be in a killing game...

A bit dizzy from the overwhelming thoughts about the question _why_ and the revelation that they had done a trial to doom one of them for a crime a few moments ago he couldn’t keep his anger in anymore. That’s why he found himself shouting at the bear: “How does that even count as murder!? Haruki-kun made this choice for himself! Jun-san had absolutely no part in it! He didn’t even damage the climbing rope for that purpose! And it was also Haruki-kun who decided to use it _exactly_ knowing it would tear apart and send him crushing!” For every angry shouted word his voice got more and more hoarse. “That’s not fair! It’s not fair if the culprit can be defined by _someone else_!”

“So then, Kouki-kun,” Monokuma stated a malice smile forming in his disgusting face, which Kouki would like to punch, “Tell me, when exactly did I say _this_ killing game would be a _fair_ killing game!? I never said that! No, no, no! Nope definitely not, can’t remember anything like that.”

Mouth agape, he could only stare in horror at what was a stuffed animal laughing a more than insane laugh. That was when the bear turned his attention to Jun, still laughing like a maniac: “Upupu~. How does that feel Jun-kun? How does it feel to have a free pass for one more murder-?”

\-----

**Remaining Students: 15**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't stop thinking that I don't gave the investigation and class trial enough credit and the chapters should be more detailed... But if I would do this the story would turn out way too long, meaning I would probably never be able to finish it xD. So please excuse if it seems rushed ;)


End file.
